Fig. 3: Intranasal adeno-associated virus delivery of AAV9-MeCP2-GFP-mouse HTR2A-shRNA decreases anxiety.

Mice were treated intranasally on day 1 with 2.0 × 10¹¹ viral particles and compared to vehicle-controls either at 5-weeks (A, B) or 8-weeks (C, D) later in the light dark test to evaluate the relative anxiety status of mice. Results for 5-week AAV9-shRNA-treated mice indicated a 34% increase in the time spent in the lit box (N = 15, p-value <0.001) as well as an 22% increase in the number of entries into the lit box (p = 0.004). Following a retesting of the same animals at 8-weeks, a slightly diminished response in both parameters was noted, however, there was still a significant increase in the time spent in the lit box (C) (p-value = 0.04). The number of entries into the light box at 8-weeks just missed statistical significance (D) (p-value = 0.058). E Although there was a trend for slightly lower weight in AAV9-shRNA-treated mice, data indicated no significance between the two groups (p = 0.49). *Denotes statistical significance between the two groups (p-value < 0.05). NS denotes non-significant (p-value > 0.05).