Multimodality imaging of lymphocytic migration using lentiviral-based transduction of a tri-fusion reporter gene.
OBJECTIVE
Previous work showed quantitative imaging of T-cell migration into a tumor site by positron emission tomography (PET), using retroviral transduction of mutated thymidine kinase (sr39TK) reporter genes into immunized T-lymphocytes.


RESULTS
In order to improve the sensitivity and flexibility of the imaging analysis, lentivirus, that expressed sr39TK, was used to transduce the lymphocytes that migrated to an immunogenic sarcoma site. In comparison to retrovirally transduced lymphocytes, the lentivirally transduced lymphocytes showed enhanced PET signal when equal numbers of transduced lymphocytes were transferred. Furthermore, in order to utilize multimodality in vivo imaging capability, a tri-fusion reporter gene containing sr39TK, synthetic Renilla luciferase (hRluc), and enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) was inserted into a lentiviral transfer vector. Using the adoptive transfer model, tumor-specific lymphocytic migration was detected by both microPET scan and bioluminescence imaging.


CONCLUSIONS
The multimodal imaging strategy coupled with lentiviral reporter construct delivery demonstrated here can facilitate future molecular imaging studies.
Kim
Young J
YJ
Division of Head and Neck Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Dubey
Purnima
P
Ray
Pritha
P
Gambhir
Sanjiv S
SS
Witte
Owen N
ON
D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D016086:Lentivirus; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011859:Radiography; D012190:Retroviridae; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000235:genetics*; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
D013937:Thymidine Kinase