Cancer Biology

Thymidine Kinase from human Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1-TK) in combination with specific substrate prodrug nucleotide analogue ganciclovir (GCV) has been widely used as suicidal therapeutic gene for cancer gene therapy. HSV1, and its mutant (HSV1-sr39TK) with improved substrate specificity, were used as reporter genes for PET-imaging of various biological functions in small animals, by combining with radiolabeled substrates such as ¹⁸F-FHBG and ¹²⁴I-FIAU. ³H-Penciclovir (PCV) uptake assay is a method of choice used to determine the expression level of HSV1-TK in mammalian cells and tissues. HSV1-TK phosphorylate PCV and result in the formation of penciclovir monophosphate, and its subsequent phopsphorylation by cellular TK lead to the formation of penciclovir triphosphate, which is trapped selectively in cells express HSV-TK. ³H-Penciclovir enables the detection of penciclovir uptake of mammalian cells and tissues by radioactive procedures such as scintillation counting. Here we describe the protocol to carry out ³H-Penciclovir uptakes in mammalian cells.