New Strategies for the Prevention of Radiation Injury: Possible Implications for Countering Radiation Hazards of Long-term Space Travel

• DOI: 10.1269/jrr.43.s239
• Publication Date: 2003-05-02T06:02:42Z
• Authors: THOMAS SEED; SREE KUMAR; MARK WHITNALL; VENKATARAMAN SRIN...; VIJAY SINGH; THOMAS ELLIOTT; MICHAEL LANDAUER; ALEXANDRA MILLER; CHENG-MIN CHANG; CYNDI INAL; JASON DEEN; MARTIN GEHLHAUS; WILLIAM JACKSON III; EDWARD HILYARD; JAMES PENDERGRASS; RAYMOND TOLES; VILMAR VILLA; VENITA MINER; MICHAEL STEWART; JAMES BENJACK; DIMITRY DANILENKO; CKATHERINE FARRELL
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Time Factors; Animals; Mice, Inbred Strains; Radiation-Protective Agents; Preventive Medicine; Space Flight; Radiation Injuries; 3. Good health

New strategies for the prevention of radiation injuries are currently being explored with the ultimate aim of developing globally radioprotective, nontoxic pharmacologics. The prophylactic treatments under review encompass such diverse pharmacologic classes as novel immunomodulators, nutritional antioxidants, and cytokines. An immunomodulator that shows promise is 5-androstenediol (AED), a well-tolerated, long-acting androstene steroid with broad-spectrum radioprotective attributes that include not only protection against acute tissue injury, but also reduced susceptibility to infectious agents, as well as reduced rates of neoplastic transformation. Other potentially useful radioprotectants currently under study include the nutraceutical vitamin E and analogs, a chemically-engineered cytokine, interleukin-1beta, and a sustained-release formulation of an aminothiol, amifostine. Results suggest that a new paradigm is evolving for the prophylaxes of radiation injuries, based on use of newly identified, nontoxic, broad-spectrum prophylactic agents whose protective action may be leveraged by subsequent postexposure use of cytokines with organ-specific reparative functions.