This invention relates to a method for constructing a
polycystic kidney disease (PCD) model and its applications. The method involves overexpressing the MYCN
gene in a target animal to obtain a PCD model that leads to PCD-related phenotypes. The method includes the following steps: obtaining a first strain of mice with Rosa26 knock-in overexpressing the CAG-LSL-HA tag-MYCN-IRES-BFP-Wpre-polyA
gene; obtaining a second strain of mice by inserting Cre-WPRE-polyA into the
start codon of the Pax8
gene; and crossing the first and second strains of mice to obtain a MYCN-overexpressing PCD model. This invention employs various
experimental methods for validation, including histopathological analysis, immunohistochemical
staining, and Western blotting. The model provided by this invention overcomes the limitations of existing
in vitro cell models, organoids, and existing animal models in terms of limited phenotypes. The established MYCN-overexpressing PCD
animal model exhibits stable
disease progression and a short
disease cycle, which not only helps to elucidate the disease mechanism but also serves as an ideal platform for
drug screening and
efficacy evaluation.