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Review
. 2023 Jan 1;199(1):89-111.
doi: 10.1667/RADE-21-00187.1.

A Review of Radiation-Induced Alterations of Multi-Omic Profiles, Radiation Injury Biomarkers, and Countermeasures

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Review

A Review of Radiation-Induced Alterations of Multi-Omic Profiles, Radiation Injury Biomarkers, and Countermeasures

Sushil K Shakyawar et al. Radiat Res. .

Abstract

Increasing utilization of nuclear power enhances the risks associated with industrial accidents, occupational hazards, and the threat of nuclear terrorism. Exposure to ionizing radiation interferes with genomic stability and gene expression resulting in the disruption of normal metabolic processes in cells and organs by inducing complex biological responses. Exposure to high-dose radiation causes acute radiation syndrome, which leads to hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, cerebrovascular, and many other organ-specific injuries. Altered genomic variations, gene expression, metabolite concentrations, and microbiota profiles in blood plasma or tissue samples reflect the whole-body radiation injuries. Hence, multi-omic profiles obtained from high-resolution omics platforms offer a holistic approach for identifying reliable biomarkers to predict the radiation injury of organs and tissues resulting from radiation exposures. In this review, we performed a literature search to systematically catalog the radiation-induced alterations from multi-omic studies and radiation countermeasures. We covered radiation-induced changes in the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, lipidomic, and microbiome profiles. Furthermore, we have covered promising multi-omic biomarkers, FDA-approved countermeasure drugs, and other radiation countermeasures that include radioprotectors and radiomitigators. This review presents an overview of radiation-induced alterations of multi-omics profiles and biomarkers, and associated radiation countermeasures.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Overview of the sources of radiation exposure and their impact on human biology. The damaging effects of irradiation on DNA, proteins, metabolites/lipidomes, microbiome, and the resulting health consequence in humans are depicted. Significant sources of natural and medical IR are mentioned here. Exposure to radiation induces DNA damage, leading to chromosomal aberrations, gene fusions, DNA breaks, and mutations. Proteomic alterations can lead to inhibition of protein synthesis, changes in protein folding and degradation. Radiation exposure also affects gut health through impairment of gut epithelial barrier integrity, villus shortening, and causes reduction in microbiome diversity. Irradiation also leads to a lowered activity in key metabolic pathways including glycolysis and energy metabolism. Exposure to high dose IR causes acute, delayed, late, and chronic health effects. Only the major health consequence from both high and low dose radiation exposure is represented in this figure.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
A) Summary of genes and miRNAs biomarkers studied in different animal models. The genes or miRNAs studied in different animal models such as baboons, human, mouse, and NHP were compared. B) Statistics of radiation countermeasures, their classification, and experimental studies in different animal models. The drugs studied in animal models e.g. NHP, human, mouse/rat, and minipig were compared to identify unique and common ones in each model.

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