Construction of an HIV-1 Tat-dependent MazF expression vector / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To construct a Tat-dependent MazF expression vector pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR.@*Methods@#HIV-1 U3TAR and MazF gene were amplified from pCR2.1-U3TAR and pET28a-MazF, respectively. Two gene fragments were linked together to form U3TAR-MazF by an overlapping PCR, and then cloned into pMD18T. An N-terminal HA tag was added to MazF to form U3TAR-MazF-HA. After double enzyme digestion using EcoR I and Hind Ⅲ, U3TAR-MazF-HA was reversely inserted into pcDNA 3.1 to form pcDNA3.1-HA-MazF-U3TAR. Then, a fluorescent reporter gene GFP was inserted into the downstream of U3TAR to form pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR.@*Results@#The co-transfection experiments with pcDNA3.1-tat-flag showed that pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR is Tat dependent. MazF was expressed only under the presence of Tat. In addition, compared with the cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR, less green fluorescent signal was observed in the cells co-transfected with pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR and pcDNA3.1-tat-flag, indicating that expressed MazF down-regulated the expression of GFP.@*Conclusions@#The expression vector pcDNA3.1-GFP-HA-MazF-U3TAR will provide an important tool for the development of MazF-based AIDS gene therapy strategies.