Establishment of a novel triple-transgenic mouse: conditionally and liver-specifically expressing hepatitis C virus NS3/4A protease.

It is well known that NS3/4A protein plays crucial roles in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication. NS3/4A protein also results to virus-mediated immune evasion and persistence of infection through the interaction with host proteins. However, the lack of a suitable animal model hampers studies of HCV NS3/4A protein interaction with host proteins, which impacts immunopathology due to infection. Here, transgenic vector containing transcriptional regulation and Fluc reporter gene was constructed to conditionally express NS3/4A protein under the dual control of Tet-On regulatory system and Cre/LoxP gene-knockout system. NS3/4A transgenic founder mice were continuously crossed with Lap transgenic mice expressing reverse tetracycline-controlled transcriptional activator (rtTA), the NS3/4A/Lap double transgenic mouse lines with liver-specifically and conditionally expressing reporter (luciferase Fluc) under control of Tet-On system were established. The NS3/4A/Lap double transgenic mouse are mated with Lap/LC-1 double transgenic mouse with liver-specifically and conditionally expressing Cre recombinase under control of Tet-On system, NS3/4A/Lap/LC-1 triple transgenic mouse were generated. In vivo bioluminescent imaging, western blotting and immunohistochemical staining (IHS) was used to confirm that NS3/4A protein was strictly expressed in the liver of Doxycycline-induced triple transgenic mice. The results show that we established a triple-transgenic mouse model conditionally expressing the HCV NS3/4A protein under strict control of the Tet-On regulatory system and Cre/loxP system. This novel transgenic mouse model expressing NS3/4A in a temporally and spatially-specific manner will be useful for studying interactions between HCV NS3/4A protein and the host, also for evaluating NS3/4A protease inhibitors.