Gilad Assaf A, Shapiro Mikhail G
The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Mol Imaging Biol. 2017 Jun;19(3):373-378. doi: 10.1007/s11307-017-1062-1.
Biomedical synthetic biology is an emerging field in which cells are engineered at the genetic level to carry out novel functions with relevance to biomedical and industrial applications. This approach promises new treatments, imaging tools, and diagnostics for diseases ranging from gastrointestinal inflammatory syndromes to cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. As these cellular technologies undergo pre-clinical and clinical development, it is becoming essential to monitor their location and function in vivo, necessitating appropriate molecular imaging strategies, and therefore, we have created an interest group within the World Molecular Imaging Society focusing on synthetic biology and reporter gene technologies. Here, we highlight recent advances in biomedical synthetic biology, including bacterial therapy, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. We then discuss emerging molecular imaging approaches to facilitate in vivo applications, focusing on reporter genes for noninvasive modalities such as magnetic resonance, ultrasound, photoacoustic imaging, bioluminescence, and radionuclear imaging. Because reporter genes can be incorporated directly into engineered genetic circuits, they are particularly well suited to imaging synthetic biological constructs, and developing them provides opportunities for creative molecular and genetic engineering.
生物医学合成生物学是一个新兴领域，在此领域中，细胞在基因水平上被改造，以执行与生物医学和工业应用相关的新功能。这种方法有望为从胃肠道炎症综合征到癌症、糖尿病和神经退行性疾病等各种疾病带来新的治疗方法、成像工具和诊断手段。随着这些细胞技术进入临床前和临床开发阶段，监测它们在体内的位置和功能变得至关重要，这就需要合适的分子成像策略。因此，我们在世界分子成像协会内成立了一个兴趣小组，专注于合成生物学和报告基因技术。在这里，我们重点介绍生物医学合成生物学的最新进展，包括细菌疗法、免疫疗法和再生医学。然后，我们讨论有助于体内应用的新兴分子成像方法，重点关注用于磁共振、超声、光声成像、生物发光和放射性核素成像等非侵入性模式的报告基因。由于报告基因可以直接整合到工程基因回路中，它们特别适合对合成生物构建体进行成像，开发报告基因为创造性的分子和基因工程提供了机会。
