Establishment of a hydrodynamic delivery system in ducks

• Published in: Transgenic research Vol. 33; no. 1-2; pp. 35 - 46
• Main Authors: Zhao, Zhanji, Zhu, Jiabing, Zhou, Lijian, Sun, Nan, Chang, Kaile, Hu, Xiaoyue, Hu, Yuting, Ren, Mingzhi, Cheng, Yan, Xu, Derong, Xin, Hongbo, Zhang, Chunbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Genetics and Genomics; Ankle; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Drug screening; Gene transfer; Genes; Genetic Engineering; Hepatitis B; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Life Sciences; Liver cancer; Liver diseases; Molecular Medicine; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plasmids; Public health; Transgenics; Waterfowl; α-Interferon; β-Galactosidase; γ-Interferon; Hydrodynamic-based gene delivery; Gene therapy; Drug screening; Exogenous gene; DHBV
• ISSN: 0962-8819; 1573-9368
• DOI: 10.1007/s11248-024-00377-x

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) poses a significant global health challenge as it can lead to acute or chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To establish a safety experimental model, a homolog of HBV—duck HBV (DHBV) is often used for HBV research. Hydrodynamic-based gene delivery (HGD) is an efficient method to introduce exogenous genes into the liver, making it suitable for basic research. In this study, a duck HGD system was first constructed by injecting the reporter plasmid pLIVE-SEAP via the ankle vein. The highest expression of SEAP occurred when ducks were injected with 5 µg/mL plasmid pLIVE-SEAP in 10% bodyweight volume of physiological saline for 6 s. To verify the distribution and expression of exogenous genes in multiple tissues, the relative level of foreign gene DNA and β-galactosidase staining of LacZ were evaluated, which showed the plasmids and their products were located mainly in the liver. Additionally, β-galactosidase staining and fluorescence imaging indicated the delivered exogenous genes could be expressed in a short time. Further, the application of the duck HGD model on DHBV treatment was investigated by transferring representative anti-HBV genes IFNα and IFNγ into DHBV-infected ducks. Delivery of plasmids expressing IFNα and IFNγ inhibited DHBV infection and we established a novel efficient HGD method in ducks, which could be useful for drug screening of new genes, mRNAs and proteins for anti-HBV treatment.