Construction of rat calcineurin A alpha cDNA recombinant adenovirus vector and its identification

Rat calcineurin (CaN) A alpha isoform (Ppp3ca) cDNA recombinant adenovirus vector was constructed in order to explore the effect of CaN on the myocardium apoptosis induced by ischemia-reperfusion injury. Total RNA was isolated from the heart of the adult Wistar rat, and Ppp3ca CDS segment of approximate 1.59 kb size was amplified by reverse transcriptional PCR method. Ppp3ca cDNA segment was cloned into pMD18-T Simple vector for sequencing, and the right clone was named T-Ppp3ca. Ppp3ca cDNA segment obtained from T-Ppp3ca was ligated with pShuttle2-IRES-EGFP to construct a recombinant plasmid pShuttle2-Ppp3ca-IRES-EGFP. Ppp3ca-IRES-EGFP expression cassette containing CMV, Ppp3ca-IRES-EGFP and SV40 polyA DNA fragment (3.97 kb) obtained from pShuttle2-Ppp3ca-IRES-EGFP was connected with pAdeno-X backbone sequence to construct a recombinant plasmid pAdeno-Ppp3ca. After being identified by PCR and enzyme digestion, recombinant plasmid pAdeno-Ppp3ca was packaged in HEK293 cells. Supernatant of adenovirus from HEK293 cells was collected after a visible cytopathic effect (CPE) appeared. The DNA of the recombinant adenovirus was extracted with the standard method. The presence of the recombinant adenovirus was verified by PCR. The results showed that sequencing results verified that the PCR product of Ppp3ca gene was identical to GenBank. Agarose electrophoresis showed the bands of recombined plasmid pAdeno-Ppp3ca and the recombinant adenovirus identified by enzyme digestion and PCR were in the right range corresponding with expectation. It was concluded that the recombinant adenovirus carrying rat calcineurin A alpha (Ppp3ca) cDNA as well as a report gene-enhancer green fluorescent protein gene was successfully constructed in this experiment.