Patent ID: 7955844

Claim:
A noninvasive method for detecting the level of expression of a gene of interest in an animal using multimodality imaging, comprising: (a) administering a triple fusion vector to the animal, wherein the triple fusion nucleic acid expression vector comprises a first reporter nucleic acid sequence, a second reporter nucleic acid sequence, a third reporter nucleic acid sequence, a first nucleic acid linker sequence, and a second nucleic acid linker sequence, wherein: (i) the first reporter nucleic acid sequence, the second reporter nucleic acid sequence, the third reporter nucleic acid sequence, the first nucleic acid linker sequence, and the second nucleic acid linker sequence are operably linked to an expression control system and co-expressible as a single fusion polypeptide therefrom; (ii) the first reporter nucleic acid sequence and the second reporter nucleic acid sequence are separated from each other by the first nucleic acid linker sequence; (iii) the second reporter nucleic acid sequence and the third reporter nucleic acid sequence are separated from each other by the second nucleic acid linker sequence; (iii) each of the first, second, and third reporter nucleic acid sequences encodes an individual imageable reporter region of the expressed fusion polypeptide; (iv) each of the individual imageable reporter regions of the fusion polypeptide is imageable by a method selected from the group consisting of: detecting bioluminescence, detecting fluorescence, and positron emission topography, wherein no two reporter regions are imageable by the same method; and (v) the first nucleic acid linker sequence encodes a first polypeptide linker having the amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO: 9, and the second nucleic acid linker sequence encodes a second polypeptide linker having the amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO: 10; (b) administering coelenterazine to the animal; (c) immobilizing the animal within the detection field of a photodetection device; (d) measuring the level of bioluminescent light emission in the animal with the photodetection device; (e) measuring the level of fluorescent light emission in the animal with the photodetection device; and (f) immobilizing the animal within the detection field of a PET device, and measuring the level of positron emission.