Protein-anchoring strategy for delivering acetylcholinesterase to the neuromuscular junction

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is anchored to the synaptic basal lamina via a triple helical collagen Q (ColQ). Congenital defects of ColQ cause endplate AChE deficiency and myasthenic syndrome. A single intravenous administration of adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8)-COLQ to Colq(-/-) mice recovered motor functions, synaptic transmission, as well as the morphology of the NMJ. ColQ-tailed AChE was specifically anchored to NMJ and its amount was restored to 89% of the wild type. We next characterized the molecular basis of this efficient recovery. We first confirmed that ColQ-tailed AChE can be specifically targeted to NMJ by an in vitro overlay assay in Colq(-/-) mice muscle sections. We then injected AAV1-COLQ-IRES-EGFP into the left tibialis anterior and detected AChE in noninjected limbs. Furthermore, the in vivo injection of recombinant ColQ-tailed AChE protein complex into the gluteus maximus muscle of Colq(-/-) mice led to accumulation of AChE in noninjected forelimbs. We demonstrated for the first time in vivo that the ColQ protein contains a tissue-targeting signal that is sufficient for anchoring itself to the NMJ. We propose that the protein-anchoring strategy is potentially applicable to a broad spectrum of diseases affecting extracellular matrix molecules.