For
Release at 6:00am EST August 7, 2001
ANTICANCER, INC., DEVELOPS NEW WHOLE-BODY IMAGING,
INFECTIOUS-DISEASE MOUSE MODEL FOR NOVEL ANTIBIOTIC DISCOVERY
AntiCancer, Inc., has
announced that it has developed new non-invasive, whole-body
imaging technology to follow infectious bacteria in the major organs of
mice. This new technology is
expected to become a highly useful tool to discover novel antibiotics and
virulence genes for resistant pathogenic bacteria.
This simple, non-intrusive technique can show in great detail the
spatial-temporal behavior of the infectious process in an animal.
Bacteria, engineered to express a novel green fluorescent protein (GFP)
developed by AntiCancer, are sufficiently bright as to be clearly visible from
outside the infected animal. Instantaneous
real-time images of the infectious process in numerous organs are acquired using
a video camera by simply illuminating the mice with blue light.
In contrast to other technologies, the whole-body fluorescence imaging
technology developed by AntiCancer is fast and requires no extraneous agents.
The development of infection over just a few hours on internal organs and
its regression after effective antibiotic treatment can be visualized by
whole-body imaging. This imaging technology affords a powerful new approach to
visualizing the infection process, determining the tissue specificity of
infection, the spatial migration of the infectious agents, and for screening of
novel antibiotics and virulence genes. The
new technology is reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
“This new
technique makes possible the rapid in vivo
screening and evaluation of new antibiotics, the role of virulence genes and
other determinants of infection pathology and immunity in vivo,” said Dr. Shigeo Yagi, General Manager of AntiCancer.
“This new in vivo imaging infection model demonstrates the great importance
and utility of AntiCancer’s GFP imaging technology which led previously to
whole-body imaging mouse models of
cancer metastasis, angiogenesis, and gene expression providing some of the most
powerful in vivo tools for drug
discovery,” said Dr. Yagi.
AntiCancer, founded in 1984 and based in San Diego, is also developing new drugs
for cancer based on genetic engineering, targeting cancer specific metabolic
defects. The company is also
developing diagnostics for cancer and other diseases as well as gene therapy of
cancer and other diseases.
Zhao, M., Yang, M., Baranov,
E., Wang, X., Penman S., Moosa, A.R., and Hoffman, R.M. Spatial-temporal
imaging of bacterial infection and antibiotic response in intact animals.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 9814-9818, 2001