Infections of Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) are associated with oral-facial infections, skin infections, and genital infections. During the past decade, potent agents against herpes virus infections have been found. The action of these agents is based on the difference between viral thymidine kinase (TK) and human TK. Thymidine kinase (TK, EC 2.7.1.21) is the key enzyme in the pyrimidine s...

UNLABELLED Noninvasive imaging in lung metastatic tumor models is used infrequently because of technical limitations in detecting metastases. We have previously used 2'-fluoro-2'-deoxy-5-iodo-1-beta-d-arabinofuranosyluracil labeled with (131)I ((131)I-FIAU) and demonstrated the applicability of noninvasive imaging for monitoring cancer gene therapy in an experimental animal model of herpes simp...

BACKGROUND Radionuclide imaging of reporter gene expression may be useful for noninvasive monitoring of clinical cardiac gene therapy. Experience until now, however, has been limited to small animals. METHODS AND RESULTS To evaluate feasibility in a clinically applicable setting, pigs were studied by conventional positron emission tomography (PET) 2 days after regional intramyocardial injecti...

Many viruses depend on host microtubule motors to reach their destined intracellular location. Viral particles of neurotropic alphaherpesviruses such as herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) show bidirectional transport towards the cell center as well as the periphery, indicating that they utilize microtubule motors of opposing directionality. To understand the mechanisms of specific motor recruitment,...

The feasibility of noninvasive imaging of adenoviral-mediated herpes virus type one thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) gene transfer and expression was assessed in a well-studied animal model of metastatic colon carcinoma of the liver. Tumors were produced in syngeneic BALB/c mice by intrahepatic injection of colon carcinoma cells (MCA-26). Seven days later, three different doses (3 x 10(8), 1 x 10(8),...

Addition of BrdUrd in combination with prednisolone to HSV1-transformed hamster embryo cells induces an alkaline phosphatase (AP). FdURd enhances, dThd reduces the inducing capacity of BrdUrd and prednisolone. Induction is prevented by addition of cycloheximide or of cytosine arabinoside. BrdUrd reduces transport and phosphorylation of exogenously applied labeled Urd, especially the amount of U...

Alzheimer's disease is a modern scourge and is likely to become increasingly so in the future, with increasing longevity. The disease has been investigated for over one hundred years yet its causes and that of the neuropathological characteristics seen in AD brain are still completely unknown. Evidence for a major causative role of a common virus, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), acting in c...