Sensitive imaging of T-cells with Gaussia reporter

Gaussia luciferase (GLuc) holds the promise to became a great reporter. In the native form, GLuc is secreted. This feature gives additional advantages, but markedly attenuates its application for in vivo imaging. At MSKCC.org, Elmer Santos and colleagues recently described on Nature Medicine a membrane anchored external GLuc (termed extGluc) genetically engineered through the addition of a CD8 transmembrane domain to the carboxy terminus of the enzyme. The strategy to put the reporter outside the cell should be advantageous: the substrate luciferin do not need to enter the cell and variability previously inferred to drug-resistant genes should be avoided. In effect, the new reporter was enough sensitive to monitor in vivo T cells by means of classical bioluminescence imaging on a IVIS workstation.


Santos, E., Yeh, R., Lee, J., Nikhamin, Y., Punzalan, B., Punzalan, B., Perle, K., Larson, S., Sadelain, M., & Brentjens, R. (2009). Sensitive in vivo imaging of T cells using a membrane-bound Gaussia princeps luciferase Nature Medicine, 15 (3), 338-344 DOI: 10.1038/nm.1930