Method for diagnosing disease using adenovirus harboring trans-splicing ribozyme by molecular imaging

A method for molecular imaging of cancer cells in a subject, the method comprising:

• 1) administering to a subject a trans-splicing ribozyme vector comprising a trans-splicing ribozyme specific to a target gene and an imaging reporter gene, wherein upon administration, the target gene is replaced with the imaging reporter gene through ribozyme-mediated trans-splicing so as to activate the imaging reporter gene;
• and
• 2) analyzing the activation of the imaging reporter gene through molecular imaging, wherein the trans-splicing ribozyme is a modified form of a trans-splicing group I ribozyme and comprises:
• i) an antisense sequence complementary to a region downstream of the uridine residue at position +45 of the target mouse cytoskeleton-associated protein 2 (mCKAP2) RNA, the antisense sequence consisting of 83 nucleotides complementary to nucleotides at positions +59 to +141 of mCKAP2 RNA or 300 nucleotides complementary to nucleotides at positions +59 to +358 of mCKAP2 RNA;
• ii) a P1 helix region linked to the 3′ end of the antisense sequence which comprises an internal guide sequence (IGS), 5′-GAGCGT-3′;
• iii) a P10 helix region linked to the 3′ end of the P1 helix region;
• and
• iv) a sequence linked to the 3′ end of the P10 helix region and encoding β-galactosidase (lacZ) or luciferase (luc).