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Updated: May 8, 2026
Humanized NOG Mice for Intravaginal HIV Exposure and Treatment of HIV Infection
Published on: January 31, 2020
[Construction of the recombinant Lactococcus lactis expressing HIV-1 gag protein and its colonization in mice]
Cairong Zhang1, Lingling Wu, Xiangqian Hou
1College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China. zhangcairong1213@126.com
Objective:
To construct the recombinant Lactococcus lactis(L.lactis) expressing HIV-1 gag and research its colonization in mice.
Methods:
HIV-1 gag was cloned into prokaryotic expression plasmid pMG36e, then the recombinant plasmid (pMG36e-gag) was electrotransformed into L.lactis. The expression of gag in L.lactis was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, respectively. The experimental mice were administrated orally with the 1×10(9); L.lactis, and the control mice with PBS instead. At 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 d after administration, the mice were sacrificed, and then the stomach, small intestine and large intestine were taken from each mouse. The L.lactis number of colonization in these tissues were assayed by means of diluting and dripping.
Results:
Restriction endonuclease analysis and DNA sequencing confirmed that gag had been cloned into the plasmid pMG36e. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting identified the gag antigen in L.lactis as we expected. At 1 and 3 d, there were some colonized recombinant L.lactis in the stomach and intestine, and the number of L.lactis colonized in the large intestine was higher than that in the stomach and small intestine. Thereafter, the number of L.lactis was rapidly reduced in the stomach and intestine, and finally only in large intestine a few still existed. At 11 d, only a few recombinant L.lactis was isolated from the stomach and intestine.
Conclusion:
The recombinant L.lactis expressing HIV-1 gag precursor protein (Pr55) was constructed, and it can survive for a short time in the stomach and intestine, so it could act as a candidate vaccine to prevent HIV-1 infection.
