TY  - JOUR
A1  - Weibel, Stephanie
A1  - Basse-Luesebrink, Thomas Christian
A1  - Hess, Michael
A1  - Hofmann, Elisabeth
A1  - Seubert, Carolin
A1  - Langbein-Laugwitz, Johanna
A1  - Gentschev, Ivaylo
A1  - Sturm, Volker Jörg Friedrich
A1  - Ye, Yuxiang
A1  - Kampf, Thomas
A1  - Jakob, Peter Michael
A1  - Szalay, Aladar A.
T1  - Imaging of Intratumoral Inflammation during Oncolytic Virotherapy of Tumors by \(^{19}\)F-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Background
Oncolytic virotherapy of tumors is an up-coming, promising therapeutic modality of cancer therapy. Unfortunately, non-invasive techniques to evaluate the inflammatory host response to treatment are rare. Here, we evaluate \(^{19}\)F magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which enables the non-invasive visualization of inflammatory processes in pathological conditions by the use of perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions (PFC) for monitoring of oncolytic virotherapy.

Methodology/Principal Findings
The Vaccinia virus strain GLV-1h68 was used as an oncolytic agent for the treatment of different tumor models. Systemic application of PFC emulsions followed by \(^1H\)/\(^{19}\)F MRI of mock-infected and GLV-1h68-infected tumor-bearing mice revealed a significant accumulation of the \(^{19}\)F signal in the tumor rim of virus-treated mice. Histological examination of tumors confirmed a similar spatial distribution of the \(^{19}\)F signal hot spots and \(CD68^+\)-macrophages. Thereby, the \(CD68^+\)-macrophages encapsulate the GFP-positive viral infection foci. In multiple tumor models, we specifically visualized early inflammatory cell recruitment in Vaccinia virus colonized tumors. Furthermore, we documented that the \(^{19}\)F signal correlated with the extent of viral spreading within tumors.

Conclusions/Significance
These results suggest \(^{19}\)F MRI as a non-invasive methodology to document the tumor-associated host immune response as well as the extent of intratumoral viral replication. Thus, \(^{19}\)F MRI represents a new platform to non-invasively investigate the role of the host immune response for therapeutic outcome of oncolytic virotherapy and individual patient response.
KW  - inflammation
KW  - fluorescence microscopy
KW  - oncolytic viruses
KW  - fluorescence imaging
KW  - macrophages
KW  - magnetic resonance imaging
KW  - histology
KW  - in vivo imaging
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130311
VL  - 8
IS  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ye, Mingyu
A1  - Keicher, Markus
A1  - Gentschev, Ivaylo
A1  - Szalay, Aladar A.
T1  - Efficient selection of recombinant fluorescent vaccinia virus strains and rapid virus titer determination by using a multi-well plate imaging system
JF  - Biomedicines
N2  - Engineered vaccinia virus (VACV) strains are used extensively as vectors for the development of novel cancer vaccines and cancer therapeutics. In this study, we describe for the first time a high-throughput approach for both fluorescent rVACV generation and rapid viral titer measurement with the multi-well plate imaging system, IncuCyte\(^®\)S3. The isolation of a single, well-defined plaque is critical for the generation of novel recombinant vaccinia virus (rVACV) strains. Unfortunately, current methods of rVACV engineering via plaque isolation are time-consuming and laborious. Here, we present a modified fluorescent viral plaque screening and selection strategy that allows one to generally obtain novel fluorescent rVACV strains in six days, with a minimum of just four days. The standard plaque assay requires chemicals for fixing and staining cells. Manual plaque counting based on visual inspection of the cell culture plates is time-consuming. Here, we developed a fluorescence-based plaque assay for quantifying the vaccinia virus that does not require a cell staining step. This approach is less toxic to researchers and is reproducible; it is thus an improvement over the traditional assay. Lastly, plaque counting by virtue of a fluorescence-based image is very convenient, as it can be performed directly on the computer.
KW  - fluorescent recombinant vaccinia virus
KW  - plaque isolation
KW  - IncuCyte\(^®\)S3
KW  - plaque assay
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245104
SN  - 2227-9059
VL  - 9
IS  - 8
ER  -