Enhancement of cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity by dendritic cells loaded with Tat-protein transduction domain-fused hepatitis B virus core antigen

摘要

The protein transduction domain (PTD) of human immuno-deficiency virus-1-Tat protein has a unique potency to pen-etrate the cellular membranes. To synthesize the sequence of Tat-PTD and hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg), we spliced these sequences and linked a fusion gene into the pMAL-c2x vector. The fusion proteins were purified by affin-ity chromatography and pulsed with bone marrow -derived den-dritic cells (DCs), and the transduction of recombinant pro-tein was detected by immunofluorescence antibody assay.Results showed that recombinant PTD-HBcAg could pen-etrate into DC cytoplasm while recombinant HBcAg was de-tected on the surface of cells. The percentage of DC surface molecules, such as CD80, CD86 and major histocompatibii-ity complex Ⅱ, and production of cytokine (IL-12pT0) induced by recombinant PTD-HBcAg were significantly higher than those induced by recombinant HBcAg or tumor necrosis fac-tor-α. DCs treated with PTD-HBcAg induced T cells to dif-ferentiate into specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and enhanced the CTL killing response. In conclusion, the ex-pressed and purified PTD-HBcAg fusion protein could pen-etrate into cells through the plasma membrane, promote DC maturation, and enhance T cells response to generate HBcAg-specific CTLs efficiently.