INTERACTION BETWEEN HEPATITIS B VIRUS e ANTIGEN AND METALLOTHIONEIN / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

To investigate the biological functions of hepatitis B virus e antigen (HBeAg) on pathogenesis of HBV, and to seek for effective methods to prevent and cure hepatitis B, we performed the yeast two hybrid system 3 technique to construct HBeAg bait plasmid. The bait plasmid was transformed into yeast AH109 and expressed in it. After the expression of HBeAg was identified by SDS page and Western blot, the AH109 yeast was mated with yeast Y187 containing liver cDNA library plasmid in 2 YPDA medium to form diploid yeast and plated on synthetic dropout nutrient medium (SD/ Trp Leu His Ade) and synthetic dropout nutrient medium (SD/ Trp Leu His Ade) containing x ? gal for screening. Plasmids of blue colonies were extracted and transformed into Escherichia coli, then analyzed by DNA sequencing and bioinformatics. Thirty nine positive colonies were sequenced, among them three colonies were metallothionein. To further prove the interaction between HBeAg and metallothionein, translation was performed by using reticulocyte lysate, and immunoprecipitation was showed in vitro . The results indicated that hepatitis B virus e antigen could interact with metallothionein in vivo and in vitro.