Molecular imaging with engineered physiology
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Molecular imaging.pdf
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Author(s)
Desai, Mitul
Slusarczyk, Adrian Lukas
Chapin, Ashley A.
Barch, Mariya
Jasanoff, Alan Pradip
Date Issued
December 2016
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Desai, Mitul, Adrian L. Slusarczyk, Ashley Chapin, Mariya Barch, and Alan Jasanoff. “Molecular Imaging with Engineered Physiology.” Nature Communications 7 (December 2, 2016): 13607. doi:10.1038/ncomms13607.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In vivo imaging techniques are powerful tools for evaluating biological systems. Relating image signals to precise molecular phenomena can be challenging, however, due to limitations of the existing optical, magnetic and radioactive imaging probe mechanisms. Here we demonstrate a concept for molecular imaging which bypasses the need for conventional imaging agents by perturbing the endogenous multimodal contrast provided by the vasculature. Variants of the calcitonin gene-related peptide artificially activate vasodilation pathways in rat brain and induce contrast changes that are readily measured by optical and magnetic resonance imaging. CGRP-based agents induce effects at nanomolar concentrations in deep tissue and can be engineered into switchable analyte-dependent forms and genetically encoded reporters suitable for molecular imaging or cell tracking. Such artificially engineered physiological changes, therefore, provide a highly versatile means for sensitive analysis of molecular events in living organisms.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13607
