New Gene Based Probes for Imaging Breast Cancer with PET.

摘要

We are developing methods to image her-2-neu oncogene over-expression in breast cancer using positron emission tomography (PET). Small oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) that are complementary to the Her-2-neu messenger RNA (mRNA) are being investigated as potential imaging probes. Fluorine-1B (2 hour half-life positron emitter) has been used to label 15 - 18 mer ODN probes. The labeling of an ODN to Fluorine-18 has been particularly troublesome because of the limited half-life and the complicated chemistry. We have explored multiple strategies and are trying to maximize yield and specific activity of our probes. With adequate synthesis of the ODN probes we will begin further cell testing and small animal imaging with microPET. We expect that the techniques developed will lead to methods to detect breast cancer in living subjects in the case that her-2-neu is over-expressed.