Molecular-Genetic Imaging of Cancer

Abstract

Molecular-genetic imaging of cancer using nonviral delivery systems has great potential for clinical application as a safe, efficient, noninvasive tool for visualization of various cellular processes including detection of cancer, and its attendant metastases. In recent years, significant effort has been expended in overcoming technical hurdles to enable clinical adoption of molecular-genetic imaging. This chapter will provide an introduction to the components of molecular-genetic imaging and recent advances on each component leading to safe, efficient clinical applications for detecting cancer. Combination with therapy, namely, generating molecular-genetic theranostic constructs, will provide further impetus for clinical translation of this promising technology.

AEG-1 Promoter–Mediated Imaging of Prostate Cancer

“…A transcription-based imaging, therapeutic or theranostic system can be considered for clinical translation if it meets certain criteria such as high tumor specificity, broad application and minimal toxicity (1, 2). The first two criteria can be met through the choice of a strong and tumor-specific promoter.…”

“…The first two criteria can be met through the choice of a strong and tumor-specific promoter. For example, cancer-specific gene therapy with the osteocalcin promoter, delivered through intra-lesional administration of an adenoviral vector, caused apoptosis in a subset of patients with prostate cancer (PCa) (2, 3). We have shown that cancer-specific imaging could be accomplished in experimental models of human melanoma and breast cancer by systemic delivery of imaging reporters under the transcriptional control of the progression elevated gene-3 promoter (PEG-Prom) (1, 4).…”

The Quest for an Effective Treatment for an Intractable Cancer

“…While this mimics the variation observed in human cancers, it makes particular therapeutic approaches more challenging, such as early detection, cancer vaccine development, and preventative therapies. To address this problem, bioluminescent markers have been utilized to enable tumor monitoring through noninvasive imaging (Minn et al, 2014;Pomper & Fisher, 2014). Moreover, metastases can be identified through these imaging techniques, opening the door to more thoroughly test antimetastatic therapies (Minn et al, 2014;Pomper & Fisher, 2014).…”

Detecting Tumor Metastases

“…Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a noninvasive, quantitative method of detecting metastases in mice in vivo (Badr, 2014; Contag et al, 1995; Minn et al, 2014). It is generally the first approach to image gene-tagged cells in vivo, when populations of cells rather than single cells are to be studied.…”

“…Molecular-genetic imaging approaches allow visualizing and quantifying biochemical processes at the cellular and molecular level (Bhang & Pomper, 2012; Minn et al, 2014; Pomper & Fisher, 2014). The basic components for molecular-genetic imaging are gene promoters, reporters, and gene delivery vehicles.…”