Construction of non-invasive real-time imaging system for cancer stem cell apoptosis and the application in chemoradiation therapy

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K10007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Radiation science
• Research Institution: Kitasato University
• Principal Investigator: Kagiya Go 北里大学, 医療衛生学部, 准教授 (30524243)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小川 良平 富山大学, 大学院医学薬学研究部(医学), 准教授 (60334736)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MATSUMOTO HIDEKI 福井大学, 高エネルギー医学研究センター, 准教授 (40142377)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アポトーシス / がん幹細胞 / 低酸素細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) residing in hypoxic regions as their niche are considered responsible for metastasis and recurrence after therapeutic treatment. Thus, a non-invasive and real-time imaging system to monitor apoptosis of cells in tumor hypoxic regions would be a useful tool to develop and evaluate a novel chemoradiation therapy targeting the CSCs. We have succeeded in improvement of an imaging system for hypoxic cell apoptosis, taking advantage of a cyclic enzyme of a shrimp-derived luciferase (Luc), detecting more than 350-times higher luminescence from cells with apoptosis induction under the hypoxic condition compared to our previous system with a cyclic firefly-derived Luc under the identical condition. This improvement should be a big progress to establish an imaging system to firmly detecting CSC apoptosis.

Free Research Field

放射線生物学　遺伝子工学