New approaches for imaging in gene therapy

Gene therapy is increasingly used experimentally and clinically to replace defective genes and/or impart new functions to cells and tissues. With the recent advances in vector. design, improvements in transgene and prodrug ac tivation strategies, gene therapy has been applied to a wide variety of dis eases, tissues and organ systems. It is now clear that our specially will p lay a critical role In gene therapy research and its clinical applications. Three aspects of gene therapy are of particular interest to imaging. The f irst is in delivering genes and vector products by minimally invasive inter ventional techniques. The second is in quantitating gene and DNA deliveries , for example, by nuclear imaging. Finally, imaging can be used to monitor the levels of transgene expression in vivo. A variety of imaging techniques including PET imaging, nuclear imaging, MR imaging and optical imaging can potentially he used to achieve the latter. This brief introductory overvie w is intended to summarize current strategies and illustrate the role that radiology will play in this field. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. A ll rights reserved.