The striatum, the main input structure of the basal ganglia, is critical for action selection and adaptive motor control. To understand the neuronal mechanisms underlying these functions, an analysis of microcircuits that compose the striatum is necessary. Among these, cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) provide intrinsic striatal innervation whose dysfunction is implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and Tourette syndrome. The ability to experimentally manipulate the activity of ChIs is critical to gain insights into their contribution to the normal function of the striatum and the emergence of behavioral abnormalities in pathological states. In this study, we generated and tested CAV-pChAT-GFP, a replication-defective canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) vector carrying the green fluorescent protein (GFP) sequence under the control of the human choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) promoter. We first tested the potential specificity of CAV-pChAT-GFP to label striatal ChIs in a rat before performing experiments on two macaque monkeys. In the vector-injected rat and monkey striatum, we found that GFP expression preferentially colocalized with ChAT-immunoreactivity throughout the striatum, including those from local circuit interneurons. CAV-2 vectors containing transgene driven by the ChAT promoter provide a powerful tool for investigating ChI contributions to circuit function and behavior in nonhuman primates.

纹状体是基底神经节的主要输入结构，对于动作选择和自适应运动控制至关重要。为了理解这些功能背后的神经机制，必须对构成纹状体的微电路进行分析。其中，胆碱能神经元（ChIs）提供固有的纹状体神经支配，其功能障碍与帕金森氏病和Tourette综合征等神经精神疾病有关。实验上控制ChIs活性的能力对于深入了解其对纹状体正常功能的贡献以及病理状态下行为异常的出现至关重要。在这项研究中，我们生成并测试了CAV-pChAT-GFP，复制缺陷型2型犬腺病毒（CAV-2）载体，在人胆碱乙酰基转移酶（ChAT）启动子的控制下携带绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）序列。在对两只猕猴进行实验之前，我们首先测试了CAV-pChAT-GFP标记大鼠纹状体ChIs的潜在特异性。在注射载体的大鼠和猴纹状体中，我们发现GFP表达优先与整个纹状体（包括来自局部回路中枢神经元的ChAT-免​​疫反应性）共定位。包含由ChAT启动子驱动的转基因的CAV-2载体为研究ChI在非人类灵长类动物中对电路功能和行为的贡献提供了强大的工具。在对两只猕猴进行实验之前，我们首先测试了CAV-pChAT-GFP标记大鼠纹状体ChIs的潜在特异性。在注射载体的大鼠和猴纹状体中，我们发现GFP表达优先与整个纹状体（包括来自局部回路中枢神经元的ChAT-免​​疫反应性）共定位。包含由ChAT启动子驱动的转基因的CAV-2载体为研究ChI在非人类灵长类动物中对电路功能和行为的贡献提供了强大的工具。在对两只猕猴进行实验之前，我们首先测试了CAV-pChAT-GFP标记大鼠纹状体ChIs的潜在特异性。在注射载体的大鼠和猴纹状体中，我们发现GFP表达优先与整个纹状体（包括来自局部回路中枢神经元的ChAT-免​​疫反应性）共定位。包含由ChAT启动子驱动的转基因的CAV-2载体为研究ChI在非人类灵长类动物中对电路功能和行为的贡献提供了强大的工具。