Ray P, Pimenta H, Paulmurugan R, Berger F, Phelps ME, Iyer M, Gambhir SS. Noninvasive quantitative imaging of protein-protein interactions in living subjects.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002;
99:3105-10. [PMID:
11854471 PMCID:
PMC122480 DOI:
10.1073/pnas.052710999]
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Abstract
We are developing methods to image molecular and cellular events in living subjects. In this study, we validate imaging of protein-protein interactions in living mice by using bioluminescent optical imaging. We use the well studied yeast two-hybrid system adapted for mammalian cells and modify it to be inducible. We employ the NF-kappaB promoter to drive expression of two fusion proteins (VP16-MyoD and GAL4-ID). We modulate the NF-kappaB promoter through tumor necrosis factor alpha. Firefly luciferase reporter gene expression is driven by the interaction of MyoD and ID through a transcriptional activation strategy. We demonstrate the ability to detect this induced protein-protein interaction in cell culture and image this induced interaction in living mice by using transiently transfected cells. The current approach will be a valuable and potentially generalizable tool to noninvasively and quantitatively image protein-protein interactions in living subjects. The approaches validated should have important implications for the study of protein-protein interactions in cells maintained in their natural in vivo environment as well as for the in vivo evaluation of new pharmaceuticals targeted to modulate protein-protein interactions.
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