Dataset Information

Radiation dose-rate effects on gene expression for human biodosimetry.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The effects of dose-rate and its implications on radiation biodosimetry methods are not well studied in the context of large-scale radiological scenarios. There are significant health risks to individuals exposed to an acute dose, but a realistic scenario would include exposure to both high and low dose-rates, from both external and internal radioactivity. It is important therefore, to understand the biological response to prolonged exposure; and further, discover biomarkers that can be used to estimate damage from low-dose rate exposures and propose appropriate clinical treatment.

Methods

We irradiated human whole blood ex vivo to three doses, 0.56 Gy, 2.23 Gy and 4.45 Gy, using two dose rates: acute, 1.03 Gy/min and a low dose-rate, 3.1 mGy/min. After 24 h, we isolated RNA from blood cells and these were hybridized to Agilent Whole Human genome microarrays. We validated the microarray results using qRT-PCR.

Results

Microarray results showed that there were 454 significantly differentially expressed genes after prolonged exposure to all doses. After acute exposure, 598 genes were differentially expressed in response to all doses. Gene ontology terms enriched in both sets of genes were related to immune processes and B-cell mediated immunity. Genes responding to acute exposure were also enriched in functions related to natural killer cell activation and cell-to-cell signaling. As expected, the p53 pathway was found to be significantly enriched at all doses and by both dose-rates of radiation. A support vectors machine classifier was able to distinguish between dose-rates with 100 % accuracy using leave-one-out cross-validation.

Conclusions

In this study we found that low dose-rate exposure can result in distinctive gene expression patterns compared with acute exposures. We were able to successfully distinguish low dose-rate exposed samples from acute dose exposed samples at 24 h, using a gene expression-based classifier. These genes are candidates for further testing as markers to classify exposure based on dose-rate.

SUBMITTER: Ghandhi SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4472181 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Radiation dose-rate effects on gene expression for human biodosimetry.

Ghandhi Shanaz A SA Smilenov Lubomir B LB Elliston Carl D CD Chowdhury Mashkura M Amundson Sally A SA

BMC medical genomics 20150512

<h4>Background</h4>The effects of dose-rate and its implications on radiation biodosimetry methods are not well studied in the context of large-scale radiological scenarios. There are significant health risks to individuals exposed to an acute dose, but a realistic scenario would include exposure to both high and low dose-rates, from both external and internal radioactivity. It is important therefore, to understand the biological response to prolonged exposure; and further, discover biomarkers t ...[more]

PMID: 25963628

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Project description:Background: The effects of dose-rate and its implications on radiation biodosimetry methods are not well studied in the context of large-scale radiological scenarios. There are significant health risks to individuals exposed to an acute dose in such an event, but the most realistic scenario would be a combination of exposure to both high and low dose-rates, from both external and internal radioactivity. It is important therefore, to understand the biological response to prolonged exposure; and further, discover biomarkers that can be used to estimate the extent of damage from low-dose rate exposure and propose appropriate clinical treatment. Methods: We irradiated human whole blood ex vivo to three doses, 0.56 Gy, 2.25 Gy and 4.45 Gy, using two dose rates: 1.1Gy/min and 3.1mGy/min. After 24 hours, we isolated RNA from blood cells and hybridized these to Agilent Whole Human genome microarrays. We validated the microarray results using qRT-PCR. Results: Microarray results showed that there were 454 significantly differentially expressed genes after prolonged exposure to all doses. After acute exposure, 598 genes were differentially expressed to all doses combined. Gene ontology terms enriched in both sets of genes were related to immune processes and B cell mediated immunity. Genes responding to acute exposure was also enriched in functions related to natural killer cell activation and cell-to-cell signaling. As expected, p53 pathway was found to be significantly enriched at all doses and by both dose-rates of radiation. Prediction algorithms were able to distinguish between low dose-rate and acute exposures, on the basis of a group of genes. These maybe candidates for preliminary testing as markers for differences in gene expression based on dose-rate. Radiation induced gene expression was measured in ex vivo irradiated human blood, at the 24hr time point after irradiation. Doses (0.56 Gy, 2.2 Gy and 4.45 Gy) were delivered by two dose rates, acute dose rate of 1Gy/min and low dose rate of 3.1 mGy/min.

Project description:Inhalation and ingestion of 137Cs and other long-lived radionuclides can occur after large-scale accidental or malicious radioactive contamination incidents, resulting in a complex temporal pattern of radiation dose/dose rate, influenced by radionuclide pharmacokinetics and chemical properties. High-throughput radiation biodosimetry techniques for such internal exposure are needed to assess potential risks of short-term toxicity and delayed effects (e.g., carcinogenesis) for exposed individuals. Previously, we used γ-H2AX to reconstruct injected 137Cs activity in experimentally-exposed mice, and converted activity values into radiation doses based on time since injection and 137Cs-elimination kinetics. In the current study, we sought to assess the feasibility and possible advantages of combining γ-H2AX with transcriptomics to improve 137Cs activity reconstructions. We selected five genes (Atf5, Hist2h2aa2, Olfr358, Psrc1, Hist2h2ac) with strong statistically-significant Spearman's correlations with injected activity and stable expression over time after 137Cs injection. The geometric mean of log-transformed signals of these five genes, combined with γ-H2AX fluorescence, were used as predictors in a nonlinear model for reconstructing injected 137Cs activity. The coefficient of determination (R2) comparing actual and reconstructed activities was 0.91 and root mean squared error (RMSE) was 0.95 MBq. These metrics remained stable when the model was fitted to a randomly-selected half of the data and tested on the other half, repeated 100 times. Model performance was significantly better when compared to our previous analysis using γ-H2AX alone, and when compared to an analysis where genes are used without γ-H2AX, suggesting that integrating γ-H2AX with gene expression provides an important advantage. Our findings show a proof of principle that integration of radiation-responsive biomarkers from different fields is promising for radiation biodosimetry of internal emitters.

Project description:Blood-based gene expression profiles that can reconstruct radiation exposure are being developed as a practical approach to radiation biodosimetry. However, age and sex could potentially limit the accuracy of the approach. In this study, we determined the impact of age on the peripheral blood cell gene expression profile of female mice exposed to radiation and identified differences and similarities with a previously obtained transcriptomic signature of male mice. Young (2 months) and old (24 months) female mice were irradiated with 4 Gy X-rays, total RNA was isolated from blood 24 hours later and subjected to whole-genome microarray analysis. Dose reconstruction analyses using a gene signature trained on gene expression data from irradiated young male mice showed accurate reconstruction of 0 or 4 Gy doses with root mean square error of ±0.75 Gy (R2 = 0.90) in young female mice. Although dose reconstruction for irradiated old female mice was less accurate than young female mice, the deviation from the actual radiation dose was not statistically significant. Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that after irradiation, apoptosis-related functions were overrepresented, whereas functions related to quantities of various immune cell subtypes were underrepresented, among differentially expressed genes from young female mice, but not older animals. Furthermore, young mice significantly upregulated genes involved in phagocytosis, a process that eliminates apoptotic cells and preserves tissue homeostasis. Both functions were also overrepresented in young, but not old, male mice following 4 Gy X-irradiation. Lastly, functions associated with neutrophil activation that is essential for killing invading pathogens and regulating the inflammatory response were predicted to be uniquely enriched in young but not old female mice. This work supports the concept that peripheral blood gene expression profiles can be identified in mice that accurately predict physical radiation dose exposure irrespective of age and sex.

Dataset Information

Radiation dose-rate effects on gene expression for human biodosimetry.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Radiation dose-rate effects on gene expression for human biodosimetry.

Similar Datasets

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