Enduring high-efficiency in vivo transfection of neurons with non-viral magnetoparticles in the rat visual cortex for optogenetic applications

Non-viral vectors for gene delivery have been extensively investigated in order to avoid the size limit restrictions and safety concerns of the viral vectors. Even though neurons remain as a challenging cell type to transfect, we were able to successfully combine magnetic particles with the pLenti-Synapsin-hChR2(H134R)-EYFP-WPRE to efficiently expressed EYFP-channelrhodopsin on the cell membrane of neurons of adult mammalian brain in vivo. The transfection rates after 30 days that we report in this study were comparable to values achieved by viral vectors, representing a promising strategy for the control of neural activity by optogenetic tools.211