A molecularly engineered split reporter for imaging protein-protein interactions with positron emission tomography

Improved techniques to non-invasively image protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are essential. We molecularly engineered a positron emission tomography (PET)-based split reporter (herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase [TK]), split between Thr265 and Ala266, and used this in a protein-fragment complementation assay (PCA) to quantitatively measure PPIs in mammalian cells and to microPET image them in living mice. An introduced point mutation (V119C) significantly enhanced TK complementation in PCAs based on rapamycin modulation of FRB (FKBP12-rapamycin-binding domain) and FKBP12 (FK506 binding protein), on interaction of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor, and in an estrogen receptor intramolecular protein folding assay. Applications of this novel split TK are potentially far-reaching, including for example considerably more accurate monitoring of immune and stem cell therapies, allowing unprecedented fully quantitative and tomographic PET localization of PPIs in pre-clinical small and large animal models of disease.