[Construction of specifically targeted chimeric hepatitis E virus DNA vaccine and its efficacy assessment].

Objective: To design chimeric DNA vaccine targeted to antigen-presenting cells (APCs) with enhanced efficacy to induce immunization.

Methods: The plasmid containing the gene encoding cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4), a surface molecule on T cells, was directly fused to the gene fragment HEVE2 coding for hepatitis E virus antigen by molecular engineering technology. The plasmid containing HEVE2 gene fragment alone was also constructed to serve as control and transfection of COS-7 cells with the 2 resultant plasmids was performed respectively, followed by assay of the expressions of CTLA4- HEVE2 fusion protein and HEVE2 protein in COS-7 cells by way of Western blotting.