Bioluminescence imaging to evaluate infections and host response in vivo.

The continued prospect of emerging pathogens and recent events including the acceptance of widespread drug resistance and threats of bioterrorism have introduced the necessity be creative in our development of therapies for bacterial infections. Many pathogens have both acute and persistent phases. There is a need to understand these pathogens throughout their entire life cycle within the host and determine the role that the host response including innate immunity plays in the establishment and maintenance of the infection. Contag et al. first suggested in 1995 that a novel whole animal, non-invasive imaging modality may provide more data from which to draw conclusions about infectious disease progression and pathogenicity in the context of a living animal. Here are presented methods for imaging two animal models that represent advances in both following the progression of infectious disease in the host and the response of the host to the pathogen.