Recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis expressing taco mRNA specific 10-23 deoxyribozyme mediate inhibition of taco expression in macrophage
Objective To construct a recombinant bacterial vaccine which can express specific 10-23 deoxyribozyme(DZ) in macrophage, identify the intracellular production of specific 10-23DZ and detect the activity of this recombinant bacterial vaccine on inhibiting the expression of TACO gene in macrophage.Methods The pSDE02 was obtained by inserting the replicon of Mycobacterium into pSDE01, a plasmid which can express 10-23DZ in eukaryotic cells. The expression sequence of DZ1, a 10-23DZ targeting the TACO mRNA of macrophage designed in our previous study was synthesized and inserted into pSDE02. The resulted plasmid was named pDZM01. pDZM01 was then transferred into Mycobacterium smegmatis by electroperation. The recombinant M. smegmatis, named rMs-DZ1 was screened on low-salt LB medium containing Zeocin and identified by Colony PCR. The targeted delivery property of recombinant M. smegmatis was observed by Ziehl-Heelson stain and GFP expression observation via fluorescence microscope. rMs-DZ1 was used to infect RAW264.7 cells and the expression of DZ1 in macrophage was identified by dot-blot assay. At 24 h and 48 h after infection, total RNA and proteins were extracted and the TACO mRNA and protein expression level was assayed by RT-PCR and western-blot respectively. Results Restrictive analysis and sequencing data showed that the Mycobacterium-eukaryotic cell shuttle plasmid pSDE02 and pDZM01 was successfully constructed. rMs-DZ1 was confirmed by colony PCR. When engulfed by macrophage, rMs-DZ1 would express DZ1 in RAW264.7 cells and inhibit the expression of taco gene. When compared to uninfected macrophage, rMs-DZ1 significantly reduced the taco mRNA by 67.90% and 57.14% and down-regulated the expression of TACO protein by 53.85% and 68.92% at 24 h and 48 h respectively. Conclusion A recombinant M. smegmatis vaccine was successfully constructed which could generate specific 10-23DZ in macrophage and inhibit the expression of target gene of interest. To our knowledge, this is the first bacterial vector which can express intracellularly 10-23DRz in targeted manner. This study may further prompt the feasibility of using 10-23 DNAzyme to achieve effective and targeted gene silence. 
 
Key words: 
10-23 deoxyribozyme;  Recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis;  Macrophage