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The Health Effects of Cardiac Fluoroscopy and Modern Radiotherapy (photon and proton) in Pediatrics (HARMONIC) is a five-year project funded by the European Commission that aimed to improve the understanding of the long-term ionizing radiation (IR) risks for pediatric patients. In this paper, we provide a detailed overview of the rationale, design, and methods for the biological aspect of the project with objectives to provide a mechanistic understanding of the molecular pathways involved in the IR response and to identify potential predictive biomarkers of individual response involved in long-term health risks. Biological samples will be collected at three time points: before the first exposure, at the end of the exposure, and one year after the exposure. The average whole-body dose, the dose to the target organ, and the dose to some important out-of-field organs will be estimated. State-of-the-art analytical methods will be used to assess the levels of a set of known biomarkers and also explore high-resolution approaches of proteomics and miRNA transcriptomes to provide an integrated assessment. By using bioinformatics and systems biology, biological pathways and novel pathways involved in the response to IR exposure will be deciphered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to ionizing radiation is ubiquitous, and it is well established that moderate and high doses cause ill-health and can be lethal. The health effects of low doses or low dose-rates of ionizing radiation are not so clear. This paper describes a project which sets out to summarize, as a restatement, the natural science evidence base concerning the human health effects of exposure to low-level ionizing radiation. A novel feature, compared to other reviews, is that a series of statements are listed and categorized according to the nature and strength of the evidence that underpins them. The purpose of this restatement is to provide a concise entrée into this vibrant field, pointing the interested reader deeper into the literature when more detail is needed. It is not our purpose to reach conclusions on whether the legal limits on radiation exposures are too high, too low or just right. Our aim is to provide an introduction so that non-specialist individuals in this area (be they policy-makers, disputers of policy, health professionals or students) have a straightforward place to start. The summary restatement of the evidence and an extensively annotated bibliography are provided as appendices in the electronic supplementary material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that a mechanistic understanding of the cellular responses to low dose and dose rate may be valuable in reducing some of the uncertainties involved in current risk estimates for cancer- and non-cancer-related radiation effects that are inherited in the linear no-threshold hypothesis. In this study, the effects of low-dose radiation on the proteome in both human fibroblasts and stem cells were investigated. Particular emphasis was placed on examining: 1. the dose-response relationships for the differential expression of proteins in the low-dose range (40-140 mGy) of low-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation; and 2. the effect on differential expression of proteins of a priming dose given prior to a challenge dose (adaptive response effects). These studies were performed on cultured human fibroblasts (VH10) and human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC). The results from the VH10 cell experiments demonstrated that low-doses of low-LET radiation induced unique patterns of differentially expressed proteins for each dose investigated. In addition, a low priming radiation dose significantly changed the protein expression induced by the subsequent challenge exposure. In the ADSC the number of differentially expressed proteins was markedly less compared to VH10 cells, indicating that ADSC differ in their intrinsic response to low doses of radiation. The proteomic results are further discussed in terms of possible pathways influenced by low-dose irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tardigrades are highly tolerant to desiccation and ionizing radiation but the mechanisms of this tolerance are not well understood. In this paper, we report studies on dose responses of adults and eggs of the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini exposed to gamma radiation. In adults the LD50/48h for survival was estimated at ~ 4200 Gy, and doses higher than 100 Gy reduced both fertility and hatchability of laid eggs drastically. We also evaluated the effect of radiation (doses 50 Gy, 200 Gy, 500 Gy) on eggs in the early and late embryonic stage of development, and observed a reduced hatchability in the early stage, while no effect was found in the late stage of development. Survival of juveniles from irradiated eggs was highly affected by a 500 Gy dose, both in the early and the late stage. Juveniles hatched from eggs irradiated at 50 Gy and 200 Gy developed into adults and produced offspring, but their fertility was reduced compared to the controls. Finally we measured the effect of low temperature during irradiation at 4000 Gy and 4500 Gy on survival in adult tardigrades, and observed a slight delay in the expressed mortality when tardigrades were irradiated on ice. Since H. dujardini is a freshwater tardigrade with lower tolerance to desiccation compared to limno-terrestrial tardigrades, the high radiation tolerance in adults, similar to limno-terrestrial tardigrades, is unexpected and seems to challenge the idea that desiccation and radiation tolerance rely on the same molecular mechanisms. We suggest that the higher radiation tolerance in adults and late stage embryos of H. dujardini (and in other studied tardigrades) compared to early stage embryos may partly be due to limited mitotic activity, since tardigrades have a low degree of somatic cell division (eutely), and dividing cells are known to be more sensitive to radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tardigrades represent one of the most desiccation and radiation tolerant animals on Earth, and several studies have documented their tolerance in the adult stage. Studies on tolerance during embryological stages are rare, but differential effects of desiccation and freezing on different developmental stages have been reported, as well as dose-dependent effect of gamma irradiation on tardigrade embryos. Here, we report a study evaluating the tolerance of eggs from the eutardigrade Milnesium cf. tardigradum to three doses of gamma radiation (50, 200 and 500 Gy) at the early, middle, and late stage of development. We found that embryos of the middle and late developmental stages were tolerant to all doses, while eggs in the early developmental stage were tolerant only to a dose of 50 Gy, and showed a declining survival with higher dose. We also observed a delay in development of irradiated eggs, suggesting that periods of DNA repair might have taken place after irradiation induced damage. The delay was independent of dose for eggs irradiated in the middle and late stage, possibly indicating a fixed developmental schedule for repair after induced damage. These results show that the tolerance to radiation in tardigrade eggs changes in the course of their development. The mechanisms behind this pattern are unknown, but may relate to changes in mitotic activities over the embryogenesis and/or to activation of response mechanisms to damaged DNA in the course of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly half of all cancers are treated with radiotherapy alone or in combination with other treatments, where damage to normal tissues is a limiting factor for the treatment. Radiotherapy-induced adverse health effects, mostly of importance for cancer patients with long-term survival, may appear during or long time after finishing radiotherapy and depend on the patient's radiosensitivity. Currently, there is no assay available that can reliably predict the individual's response to radiotherapy. We profiled two study sets from breast (n = 29) and head-and-neck cancer patients (n = 74) that included radiosensitive patients and matched radioresistant controls.. We studied 55 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 33 genes by DNA genotyping and 130 circulating proteins by affinity-based plasma proteomics. In both study sets, we discovered several plasma proteins with the predictive power to find radiosensitive patients (adjusted p < 0.05) and validated the two most predictive proteins (THPO and STIM1) by sandwich immunoassays. By integrating genotypic and proteomic data into an analysis model, it was found that the proteins CHIT1, PDGFB, PNKD, RP2, SERPINC1, SLC4A, STIM1, and THPO, as well as the VEGFA gene variant rs69947, predicted radiosensitivity of our breast cancer (AUC = 0.76) and head-and-neck cancer (AUC = 0.89) patients. In conclusion, circulating proteins and a SNP variant of VEGFA suggest that processes such as vascular growth capacity, immune response, DNA repair and oxidative stress/hypoxia may be involved in an individual's risk of experiencing radiation-induced toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The complexity of DNA lesions induced by ionizing radiation is mainly dependent on radiation quality, where the indirect action of radiation may contribute to different extent depending on the type of radiation under study. The effect of indirect action of radiation can be investigated by using agents that induce oxidative DNA damage or by applying free radical scavengers. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the indirect effect of radiation for the repair fidelity of non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), homologous recombination repair (HRR) and base excision repair (BER) when DNA damage of different complexity was induced by gamma radiation, alpha particles or from base damages (8-oxo-dG) induced by potassium bromate (KBrO3). CHO cells lines deficient in XRCC3 (HRR) irs1SF, XRCC7 (NHEJ) V3-3 and XRCC1 (BER) EM9 were irradiated in the absence or presence of the free radical scavenger dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The endpoints investigated included rate of cell proliferation by the DRAG assay, clonogenic cell survival and the level of primary DNA damage by the comet assay. The results revealed that the indirect effect of low-LET radiation significantly reduced the repair fidelity of both NHEJ and HRR pathways. For high-LET radiation the indirect effect of radiation also significantly reduced the repair fidelity for the repair deficient cell lines. The results suggest further that the repair fidelity of the error prone NHEJ repair pathway is more impaired by the indirect effect of high-LET radiation relative to the other repair pathways studied. The response to bromate observed for the two DSB repair deficient cell lines strongly support earlier studies that bromate induces complex DNA damages. The significantly reduced repair fidelity of irs1SF and V3-3 suggests that NHEJ as well as HRR are needed for the repair, and that complex DSBs are formed after bromate exposure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]