发布: 2017年06月05日第7卷第11期 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2313 浏览次数: 9614
评审: Longping Victor TseGal HaimovichAnonymous reviewer(s)
Abstract
A major barrier for using non-viral vectors for gene therapy is the short duration of transgene expression in postmitotic tissues. Previous studies showed transgene expression from conventional plasmid fell to sub-therapeutic level shortly after delivery even though the vector DNA was retained, suggesting transcription was silenced in vivo (Nicol et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2004). Emerging evidence indicates that plasmid bacterial backbone sequences are responsible for the transcriptional repression and this process is independent of CpG methylation (Chen et al., 2008). Dumbbell-shaped DNA vectors consisting solely of essential elements for transgene expression have been developed to circumvent these drawbacks. This novel non-viral vector has been shown to improve transgene expression in vitro and in vivo (Schakowski et al., 2001 and 2007). Here we describe a novel method for fast and efficient production of minimised small RNA-expressing dumbbell vectors. In brief, the PCR-amplified promoter sequence is ligated to a chemically synthesized hairpin RNA coding DNA template to form the covalently closed dumbbell vector. This new technique may facilitate applications of dumbbell-shaped vectors for preclinical investigation and human gene therapy.
Keywords: Dumbbell vector (哑铃形载体)Background
With regard to delivery, a small vector size is advantageous improving extracellular transport including extravasation and diffusion through the extracellular matrix network as well as cellular uptake and nuclear diffusion. Various methods for dumbbell vector production have been developed over the time including methods for the generation of dumbbells expressing small RNAs such as small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) (Schakowski et al., 2001; Taki et al. 2004). These vectors usually harbour redundant sequences as the expressed RNAs are self-complementary. We eliminated redundant sequences generating minimised dumbbell vectors in which transcription goes around the hairpin structure of the dumbbell itself (Jiang et al., 2016). Such minimised dumbbell vectors can be as short as 130 bp representing the smallest expression vectors ever reported. An illustrated comparison between a conventional plasmid, a dumbbell harbouring a linear expression cassette, and a novel hairpin template-transcribing dumbbell vector is shown in Figure 1. This novel protocol facilitates the production of the new minimised small RNA expression dumbbell vectors.
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Figure 1. Structures of small hairpin RNA-expressing plasmid and dumbbell vectors. Upper two: conventional plasmid p-iPR-linear-s/as and dumbbell db-iPR-linear-s/as vectors with linear shRNA expression cassettes and integrated promoter-restriction endonuclease site element (iPR). Lower vector: minimized hairpin template (hp) dumbbell harboring an iPRT element. R indicates a restriction overhang ligation site. T indicates termination signal. IT indicates inverted termination signal. Loops L1 and L2 are (T)4 tetra loops.
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文章信息
版权信息
© 2017 The Authors; exclusive licensee Bio-protocol LLC.
如何引用
Jiang, X. and Patzel, V. (2017). Formation of Minimised Hairpin Template-transcribing Dumbbell Vectors for Small RNA Expression. Bio-protocol 7(11): e2313. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2313.
分类
分子生物学 > DNA > DNA 克隆
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