Incorporation of Tb and Gd improves the diagnostic functionality of magnetotactic bacteria
Here we provide additional diagnostic functionalities to magnetotactic bacteria Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1 while retaining their intrinsic capabilities. These additional functionalities are achieved by incorporating Tb or Gd in the bacteria by culturing them in Tb/Gd supplemented media. The incorporation of Tb provides luminescence properties, enabling potential applications of bacteria as biomarkers. The incorporation of Gd turns bacteria into dual contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, since Gd adds T1 contrast to the existing T2 contrast of unmodified bacteria. Given their potential clinical applications, the diagnostic ability of the modified MSR-1 has been successfully tested in vitro in two cell models, confirming their suitability as fluorescent markers (Tb-MSR-1) and dual contrast agents for MRI (Gd-MSR-1).