Bioluminescence reporter for monitoring G2-phase cell cycle arrest in vivo

The bioengineered luciferase reporter has been widely used for monitoring of a variety of molecular events in living cells because of their ability to provide highly sensitive quantitation with broad linearity. In the present study, we made a cyclin A2-luciferase (CYCA-Luc) fusion protein and examined the utility of this optical reporter for monitoring G2-phase cell cycle arrest in living animals. In vitro luciferase assay and in vivo bioluminescence imaging assay showed that the lithium chloride (LiCl), G2-phase-specific drug, induced G2-phase arrest of cell cycle and increased the activity of this reporter under in vitro or in vivo conditions, and this reporter can also be potentially used in high-throughput screening efforts aimed at discovering novel anti-cancer drugs that will cause cell cycle arrest at the G2-phase in cultivated cell lines and animal models.