Magnetic resonance imaging of viral particle biodistribution in vivo

We describe here a technique for the visualization of viral vector delivery by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in vivo. By conjugating avidin-coated baculoviral vectors (Baavi) with biotinylated ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (USPIO), we are able to produce vector-related MRI contrast in the choroid plexus cells of rat brain in vivo over a period of 14 days. Ten microlitres of 2.5 x 10(10) PFU/ml nuclear-targeted LacZ-encoding Baavi with bUSPIO coating was injected into rat brain ventricles and visualized by MRI at 4.7 T. As baculoviruses exhibit restricted cell-type specificity in the rat brain, altered MRI contrast was detected in the choroid plexus of the injected ve…

Peptide-mediated interference with baculovirus transduction

Baculovirus represents a multifunctional platform with potential for biomedical applications including disease therapies. The importance of F3, a tumor-homing peptide, in baculovirus transduction was previously recognized by the ability of F3 to augment viral binding and gene delivery to human cancer cells following display on the viral envelope. Here, F3 was utilized as a molecular tool to expand understanding of the poorly characterized baculovirus-mammalian cell interactions. Baculovirus-mediated transduction of HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells was strongly inhibited by coincubating the virus with synthetic F3 or following incorporation of F3 into viral nucleocapsid by genetic engineering, th…

CMR 2005: 12.06: Ultra-small iron oxide nanoparticle (USPIO)-labeled baculoviruses as novel MRI agents for imaging viral vector biodistributionin vivo