Bacteria-mediated cancer therapy is a potential therapeutic strategy for cancer that has unique properties, including broad tumor-targeting ability, various administration routes, the flexibility of delivery, and facilitating the host’s immune responses. The molecular imaging of bacteria-mediated cancer therapy allows the therapeutically injected bacteria to be visualized and confirms the accurate delivery of the therapeutic bacteria to the target lesion. Several hurdles make bacteria-specific imaging challenging, including the need to discriminate therapeutic bacterial infection from inflammation or other pathologic lesions. To realize the full potential of bacteria-specific imaging, it is necessary to develop bacteria-specific targets that can be associated with an imaging assay. This review describes the current status of bacterial imaging techniques together with the advantages and disadvantages of several imaging modalities. Also, we describe potential targets for bacterial-specific imaging and related applications.

细菌介导的癌症治疗是一种潜在的癌症治疗策略，具有独特的特性，包括广泛的肿瘤靶向能力、多种给药途径、递送的灵活性以及促进宿主的免疫反应。细菌介导的癌症治疗的分子成像可以使治疗性注射的细菌可视化，并确认治疗性细菌准确递送至目标病灶。一些障碍使细菌特异性成像具有挑战性，包括需要将治疗性细菌感染与炎症或其他病理病变区分开来。为了充分发挥细菌特异性成像的潜力，有必要开发可与成像测定相关的细菌特异性靶标。本综述描述了细菌成像技术的现状以及几种成像方式的优缺点。此外，我们描述了细菌特异性成像和相关应用的潜在目标。