Praveen Kumar Gulaka1, Vikram D. Kodibagkar1,2,
Jian-Xin Yu2, Ralph P. Mason, 12
1Biomedical Engineering, UT Arlington
and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Tx, United States; 2Radiology,
UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Tx, United States
Extensive
implementation of gene therapy as a therapeutic strategy for cancers has been
hampered by difficulties in quantitatively assessing the success of gene
transfection and longevity of gene expression. Therefore development of
non-invasive reporter techniques based on appropriate molecules and imaging
modalities may help to assay gene expression. We have evaluated a range of
S-Gal analogs as novel 1H MR lacZ gene-reporter molecules in vitro and have
identified C3-GD as an optimal agent for in vivo studies.