The vascular endothelial growth factor-2 (VEGFR2) gene is transcriptionally regulated during angiogenesis. The ability to monitor and quantify VEGFR2 expression in vivo may facilitate a better understanding of the role of VEGFR2 in different states. Here we describe a transgenic mouse, Vegfr2-luc, in which a luciferase reporter is under control of the murine VEGFR2 promoter. In adult mice, luci...

To determine the effects of hammerhead ribozymes against hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA on viral protein translation, a luciferase reporter gene vector, pCMV/T7-NCRCdelta-luc, was constructed containing the 5'-noncoding region (5'-NCR) and part of the core region of HCV. Four ribozymes, Rz1-Rz4, were designed to cleave at nucleotide positions 136-160, 313-337, 496-520, and 373-388, respectively. E...

OBJECTIVE To approach heart muscle diseases by gene transfer, an adenoviral vector system was intended to be established suitable for gene expression in ventricular and/or atrial myocardium. METHODS Two adenoviral vectors (Ad-mhcLuc, Ad-mlcLuc) were constructed, in which the luciferase reporter gene is under control of either the ventricle-specific myosin light chain-2 (mlc-2v) or the atrial-...

The inhibition mechanisms of the firefly luciferase (Luc) by the two major products of the reactions catalysed by Luc, oxyluciferin and dehydroluciferyl-adenylate (L-AMP), were investigated. Light production in the presence and absence of these inhibitors (0.5 to 2 microM oxyluciferin; 0.0025 to 1.25 microM L-AMP) has been measured in 50 mM Hepes buffer (pH=7.5), 10 nM Luc, 250 microM ATP and D...

Firefly luciferase (LUC) is a sensitive and versatile reporter for the analysis of gene expression. Transgenic plants carrying CLOCK GENE promoter:LUC fusions can be assayed with high temporal resolution. LUC measurement is sensitive, noninvasive, and nondestructive and can be readily automated, greatly facilitating genetic studies. For these reasons, LUC fusion analysis is a mainstay in the st...

BACKGROUND Cell transplantation is likely to become an important therapeutic tool for the treatment of various traumatic and ischemic injuries to the central nervous system (CNS). However, in many pre-clinical cell therapy studies, reporter gene-assisted imaging of cellular implants in the CNS and potential reporter gene and/or cell-based immunogenicity, still remain challenging research topics...

There are no general methods for reliably assessing the firing properties or even calcium profiles of specific neurons in freely moving flies. To this end, we adapted a GFP-based calcium reporter to luciferase that was expressed in small subsets of circadian neurons. This Tric-LUC reporter allowed a direct comparison of luciferase activity with locomotor activity, which was assayed in the same ...

A cellular delivery system is a useful biotechnology tool, with many possible applications. Two derivatives of Clostridium difficile toxin A (TcdA) have been constructed (GFP-TcdA and Luc-TcdA), by fusing reporter genes to functional domains of TcdA, and evaluated for their ability to translocate their cargo into mammalian cells. The cysteine protease and receptor binding domains of TcdA have b...

BACKGROUND The only oral drug available for the treatment of leishmaniasis is miltefosine, described and approved for visceral leishmaniasis in India. Miltefosine is under evaluation for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Americas although its efficacy for the treatment of human visceral leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania infantum chagasi has not been described. Drug efficacy for v...

We assessed the role of surfactant replacement mixtures in the enhancement of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer to pulmonary epithelial cells both in vitro and in vivo. A549 cells, a pulmonary epithelium-derived adenocarcinoma cell line, were incubated with either media alone or media containing 10 μg phospholipid/ml Exosurf or Infasurf for 50 min followed by addition of a replication-deficient...