Fangyu Peng

20070009437, Jan 11, 2007

Mar 28, 2006

11/390965

Fangyu Peng - Bloomfield Hills MI, US
King Li - Bethesda MD, US
Sunil Pandit - Gaithersburg MD, US

A61K 51/00
C12Q 1/68

424001690, 435006000

Enzyme-mediated intracellular trapping of a radionuclide in a target cell is achieved by transfecting the target cell with a transgenic vector encoding a microbial hydrogenase expressible in the target cell and exposing the transfected target cell with a radionuclide. The transgenically expressed microbial hydrogenase catalyzes the reduction of the radionuclide. The reduced radionuclide becomes trapped intracellularly where its emissions can be detected in radioscintigraphy applications. In addition, emissions from an intracellularly trapped radionuclide can be cytotoxic to the cell and therefore useful in radiotherapy applications. As a reporter, a microbial hydrogenase encoding nucleic acid can be included in a vector along with a transgene, both under the control of the same promoter. The detection of emissions from intracellularly reduced and trapped radionuclide can be used to monitor transgene expression.