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Updated: Oct 26, 2025

Radionuclide-fluorescence Reporter Gene Imaging to Track Tumor Progression in Rodent Tumor Models
Published on: March 13, 2018
In Situ Generated Novel 1H MRI Reporter for β-Galactosidase Activity Detection and Visualization in Living Tumor
Shuo Gao1, Lei Zhao1, Zhiqiang Fan1
1Center of Translational Medicine, Fifth School of Medicine/Suizhou Central Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, China.
Abstract:
For wide applications of the lacZ gene in cellular/molecular biology, small animal investigations, and clinical assessments, the improvement of noninvasive imaging approaches to precisely assay gene expression has garnered much attention. In this study, we investigate a novel molecular platform in which alizarin 2-O-β-d-galactopyranoside AZ-1 acts as a lacZ gene/β-gal responsive 1H-MRI probe to induce significant 1H-MRI contrast changes in relaxation times T 1 and T 2 in situ as a concerted effect for the discovery of β-gal activity with the exposure of Fe3+. We also demonstrate the capability of this strategy for detecting β-gal activity with lacZ-transfected human MCF7 breast and PC3 prostate cancer cells by reaction-enhanced 1H-MRI T 1 and T 2 relaxation mapping.

