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DNA Repair and Cell Cycle Biomarkers of Radiation Exposure and Inflammation Stress in Human Blood

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [3];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Division; DOE/OSTI
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Division
  3. The Methodist Hospital Research Inst., Houston, TX (United States). Center for Biostatistics
  4. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  5. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD (United States). Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Inst.
  6. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). School of Medicine. Radiation Oncology

DNA damage and repair are hallmarks of cellular responses to ionizing radiation. We hypothesized that monitoring the expression of DNA repair-associated genes would enhance the detection of individuals exposed to radiation versus other forms of physiological stress. We employed the human blood ex vivo radiation model to investigate the expression responses of DNA repair genes in repeated blood samples from healthy, non-smoking men and women exposed to 2 Gy of X-rays in the context of inflammation stress mimicked by the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Radiation exposure significantly modulated the transcript expression of 12 genes of 40 tested (2.2E-06,p,0.03), of which 8 showed no overlap between unirradiated and irradiated samples (CDKN1A, FDXR, BBC3, PCNA, GADD45a, XPC, POLH and DDB2). This panel demonstrated excellent dose response discrimination (0.5 to 8 Gy) in an independent human blood ex vivo dataset, and 100% accuracy for discriminating patients who received total body radiation. Three genes of this panel (CDKN1A, FDXR and BBC3) were also highly sensitive to LPS treatment in the absence of radiation exposure, and LPS co-treatment significantly affected their radiation responses. At the protein level, BAX and pCHK2-thr68 were elevated after radiation exposure, but the pCHK2-thr68 response was significantly decreased in the presence of LPS. Our combined panel yields an estimated 4-group accuracy of ,90% to discriminate between radiation alone, inflammation alone, or combined exposures. Our findings suggest that DNA repair gene expression may be helpful to identify biodosimeters of exposure to radiation, especially within high-complexity exposure scenarios.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1627556
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Journal Name: PLoS ONE Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 7; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Candidate protein markers for radiation biodosimetry in the hematopoietically humanized mouse model text January 2018
Whole thorax irradiation of non-human primates induces persistent nuclear damage and gene expression changes in peripheral blood cells text January 2018
Candidate gene biodosimetry markers of exposure to external ionizing radiation in human blood: A systematic review text January 2018