Construction of a recombinant HBV DNA vaccine and its evaluation for specific cellular immune response in mice / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the specific cellular immune response induced by a recombinant HBV DNA vaccine and evaluate the potential therapeutic effect of this vaccine against HBV.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A series of HBV epitopes were screened and the optimal combinations of these gene fragments identified to construct the target gene HS which incorporated appropriate flanking sequences. HS was inserted in pVAX1 to construct the recombinant plasmid PVAX-HS. Generation of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) induced by PVAX-HS in HLA-A2 mice was observed by 51Cr assay and the activity of the CTLs evaluated using ELISPOT assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>PVAX-HS was constructed successfully, which induced specific CTLs with strong activities after immunization in mice as compared with the control group that yielded negative results.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>PVAX-HS DNA immunization can induced specific cellular immune response in mice, suggesting the potential therapeutic effect of this HBV vaccine.</p>