MicroPET imaging of Cre–loxP-mediated conditional activation of a herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase reporter gene

Positron emission tomography imaging of conditional gene activation in the heart

“…The duration of gene expression was ~2 weeks due to host cellular immune response against the adenoviral vector, consistent with previous studies (17,23,24). Our results are also consistent with two separate imaging studies involving conditional gene activation in the liver (13) and tumors (25) of transgenic mice. Taken together, these proof-of-principle experiments illustrate the potential of molecular imaging for monitoring conditional gene activation and gene deletion in the cardiovascular system.…”

“…These cells were also exposed to 1×10 9 pfu of adenovirus containing no transgene (Ad-null) as negative control and 1×10 9 pfu of adenovirus carrying constitutive CMV promoter driving herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (Ad-HSV1-tk) as positive control. Construction, amplification, and viral titer determination of these viruses have been described previously (13).…”

Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine

“…A similar transgenic strain was reported by Safran et al (2003). As the generation of transgenic mice is a tedious, time consuming and expensive process, Sundaresan et al (2004) have recently shown that Cre-loxP can be used with in vivo gene transfer. Mice with hepatic Cre expression were tail vein injected with an adenovirus carrying a loxP "silenced" HSV1-tk reporter.…”

Evaluation of Firefly Luciferase Bioluminescence Mediated Photodynamic Toxicity in Cancer Cells

“…Tumor-specific gene expression can be driven by tissue-or tumor-specific promoters, such as the PSA promoter in prostate carcinoma [14], the Chromogranin A promoter in neuroendocrine tumors [15], or the glut1 promoter, which is specific for many neoplastic tissues [16]. Weak tissue specific promoters can be amplified by using strategies such as the two-step transcriptional activation, or the CreYLoxP system [17,18]. Recently, expression of the fLuc gene was detected in lung and bone metastases of prostate tumor cells after a systemic injection of an adenovirus carrying the gene.…”