Use of in vivo-regulated promoters to deliver antigens from attenuated Salmonella enterica var. typhimurium

Abstract

This study describes the construction and analysis of three in vivo- inducible promoter expression plasmids, containing pnirB, ppagC, and pkatG, for the delivery of foreign antigens in the Aaro/tD mutant of Salmonella enterica var. Typhimurium (hereafter referred to as S. typhimurium). The reporter genes encoding β-galactosidase and firefly luciferase were used to assess the comparative levels of promoter activity in S. typhimurium in vitro in response to different induction stimuli and in vivo in immunized mice. It was determined that the ppagC construct directed the expression of more β- galactosidase and luciferase in S. typhimurium than the pnirB and pkatG constructs, both in vitro and i..