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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Feb 23.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer Res. 2008 Apr 15;68(8):2878–2884. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-07-6028

Figure 1.

Figure 1

The CD-UPRT fusion enzyme can be monitored based on its metabolism of MR-visible probes to intracellularly entrapped MR-visible anabolites. Cells transduced with the yCDA-iUPP fusion gene (1) express the CD-UPRT enzyme (2). CD converts 5FC to 5FU, while UPRT anabolizes 5FU to fluorouridine monophosphate (FUMP). FUMP and other fluorinated nucleotides are indistinguishable by MRS and apppear as a single resonance on MR spectra that is designated as FNuc. As anions, these fluoronucleotides are unable to cross the cell membrane and are therefore trapped within the cell.