title: [Identification of occult disseminated tumor cells by recombinant herpes simplex virus expressing GFP (HSV(GFP))].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a novel rapid protocol for the detection of occult disseminated tumor cells by a recombinant herpes simplex virus expressing GFP (HSV(GFP)).
  
  
  METHODS
  Tumor cells of seven cell lines were exposed to HSV(GFP) and then examined for GFP expression by fluorescence microscopy. Various numbers of tumor cells (10, 100, 1000, 10 000) were mixed into 2 ml human whole blood, separated with lymphocytes separation medium, exposed to HSV(GFP), incubated at 37°C for 6 - 24 h and then counted for the number of green cells under the fluorescence microscope. Some clinical samples including peripheral blood, pleural effusion, ascites, spinal fluid from tumor-bearing patients were screened using this protocol in parallel with routine cytological examination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HSV(GFP) was able to infect all 7 tumor cell lines indicating that the HSV(GFP) can be used to detect different types of tumor cells. The detection sensitivity was 10 cancer cells in 2 ml whole blood. In the clinical samples, there were 4/15 positive by routine cytological examination but 11/15 positive by HSV(GFP), indicating a higher sensitivity of this new protocol.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recombinant herpes simplex virus-mediated green fluorescence is a simple and sensitive technique for the identification of occult disseminated cancer cells including circulating tumor cells (CTCs).
authors: College of Life Sciences in Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors: Xiang-ping
authors: XP
authors: Han
authors: Gui-lan
authors: GL
authors: Shi
authors: Cheng-feng
authors: CF
authors: Wang
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Jian-wei
authors: JW
authors: Zhang
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Shu-ren
authors: SR
authors: Zhang
authors: Bin-lei
authors: BL
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000378:metabolism*; D014709:Vero Cells
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins