title: Tyrosinase as a multifunctional reporter gene for Photoacoustic/MRI/PET triple modality molecular imaging.
abstract: Development of reporter genes for multimodality molecular imaging is highly important. In contrast to the conventional strategies which have focused on fusing several reporter genes together to serve as multimodal reporters, human tyrosinase (TYR)--the key enzyme in melanin production--was evaluated in this study as a stand-alone reporter gene for in vitro and in vivo photoacoustic imaging (PAI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Human breast cancer cells MCF-7 transfected with a plasmid that encodes TYR (named as MCF-7-TYR) and non-transfected MCF-7 cells were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. Melanin targeted N-(2-(diethylamino)ethyl)-18F-5-fluoropicolinamide was used as a PET reporter probe. In vivo PAI/MRI/PET imaging studies showed that MCF-7-TYR tumors achieved significant higher signals and tumor-to-background contrasts than those of MCF-7 tumor. Our study demonstrates that TYR gene can be utilized as a multifunctional reporter gene for PAI/MRI/PET both in vitro and in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Department of Radiology and Bio-X Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Chunxia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Yongxue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hongguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yingding
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.forename: Xinhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Shuxian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D064593:Heterografts; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008543:Melanins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D051379:Mice; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
chemical_list: D008543:Melanins; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase