Site-specific modulation of brain glucocorticoid receptor and corticotropin-releasing hormone expression using lentiviral vectors.

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) are important molecular regulators of an individual's ability to respond to stressful stimuli in an adaptive manner. Impaired signaling of both GR and CRH often leads to dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which underlies the etiology of many affective disorders such as anxiety and depression. Studies focusing on how GR and CRH influence the stress response are limited as they generalize to broad brain regions, thus hindering identification of how specific CNS nuclei contribute to maladaptive stress responses. Our objective is to distinguish the site-specific involvement of GR and CRH in limbic regions involved in the stress response. With that intent, we use lentiviral (LV) vectors in combination with transgenic mouse lines, enabling us to modify expression of GR or CRH in a very localized manner. This paper describes the generation of several distinct LV vectors and transgenic mice models that will help further elucidate the site-specific actions of GR and CRH.