Figure 5.

[¹⁸F]-FEAU-PET imaging with NV1066 allows detection of cancerous NI in vivo. PET scanning of a mouse with bilateral ACC3 (A) or PC3 (B) tumors infiltrating the sciatic nerves. In each mouse, the left sciatic nerve was injected with NV1066 48 hours earlier, and the right nerve was injected with saline as a control. The NV1066-treated tumors had significantly higher uptake of [¹⁸F]-FEAU (administrated by tail vein injection) on the PET scan. The bars on the right represent the accumulation of the radiotracer measured by a gamma counter in each nerve (orange - left nerve; blue - right nerve). The NV1066 treated nerves had a greater than 3.6-fold increase of radiotracer uptake than the right nerve. Normal tissue infected with NV1066 had no significant [¹⁸F]-FEAU uptake. R indicates right side; L, - left side (C). RT-PCR performed at 72 hours after viral infection showing that early (ICP6) and late (LAT) viral mRNA were detected in sciatic nerves infiltrated by tumor cells, but not in the brain, spinal cord, or saline-treated nerves (controls).