Patent ID: 7785874

Claim:
A method for monosynaptic transport of a heterologous nucleic acid sequence, comprising: contacting one or more primary neurons, each of which is connected by a plurality of synapses to a plurality of secondary neurons, with: (i) a transsynaptic transport (TST)-defective virus (TST-defective virus), wherein the TST-defective virus is defective for transport across the plurality of synapses and comprises a heterologous nucleic acid sequence; and (ii) one or more nucleic acid molecules encoding one or more polypeptides that complement in trans the TST-defective phenotype of the TST-defective virus, wherein the secondary neurons do not contain the nucleic acid molecules encoding one or more polypeptides that complement in trans the TST-defective phenotype of the TST-defective virus, under conditions that permit expression of the polypeptide(s) in the primary neuron(s), rescue of the TST-defective phenotype by the polypeptide(s) in the primary neuron(s), and thereby monosynaptically transporting the TST-defective virus comprising the heterologous nucleic acid sequence from the primary neuron(s) to the plurality of secondary neurons across the plurality of synapses.