Selective Overexpression of Collybistin in Mouse Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells Enhances GABAergic Neurotransmission and Protects against PTZ-Induced Seizures

Collybistin (CB) is a rho guanine exchange factor found at GABAergic and glycinergic postsynapses that interacts with the inhibitory scaffold protein, gephyrin, and induces accumulation of gephyrin and GABA type-A receptors (GABA(A)Rs) to the postsynapse. We have previously reported that the isoform without the src homology 3 (SH3) domain, CBSH3–, is particularly active in enhancing the GABAergic postsynapse in both cultured hippocampal neurons as well as in cortical pyramidal neurons after chronic in vivo expression in in utero electroporated (IUE) rats. Deficiency of CB in knock-out (KO) mice results in absence of gephyrin and gephyrin-dependent GABA(A)Rs at postsynaptic sites in several brain regions, including hippocampus. In the present study, we have generated an adeno-associated virus (AAV) that expresses CBSH3– in a cre-dependent manner. Using male and female VGLUT1-IRES-cre or VGAT-IRES-cre mice, we explore the effect of overexpression of CBSH3– in hippocampal pyramidal cells or hippocampal interneurons. The results show that: (1) the accumulation of gephyrin and GABA(A)Rs at inhibitory postsynapses in hippocampal pyramidal neurons or interneurons can be enhanced by CBSH3– overexpression; (2) overexpression of CBSH3– in hippocampal pyramidal cells can enhance the strength of inhibitory neurotransmission; and (3) these enhanced inhibitory synapses provide protection against pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures. The results indicate that this AAV vector carrying CBSH3– can be used for in vivo enhancement of GABAergic synaptic transmission in selected target neurons in the brain.