Monitoring gene therapy with reporter gene imaging

Rapid advances in imaging technologies and gene transfer strategies offer a great opportunity to optimize clinical trials of human gene therapy. Repor ter genes are emerging as very powerful tools to monitor the delivery, magn itude, and time variation of therapeutic gene transfer in vivo. Several rep orter genes, such as the herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase, the dopamine type 2 receptor, and the somatostatin receptor type 2, are current ly being successfully used with gamma camera, single photon emission comput ed tomography, and positron emission tomography imaging. These reporter gen es can be coupled with a therapeutic gene of interest to indirectly monitor the expression of the therapeutic gene. Finally, applications of the repor ter gene technology to other areas, such as cell trafficking studies and tr ansgenic animal models, are now possible. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunde rs Company.