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New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research

Traditionally, the brain has been regarded as a relatively insensitive late-reacting tissue, with radiologically detectable damage not being reported at doses < 60 Gy. When NASA proposed interplanetary exploration missions, it was required to conduct an intensive health and safety evaluation of c...

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Autores principales: Britten, Richard A., Limoli, Charles L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303969/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37374076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13061293
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author Britten, Richard A.
Limoli, Charles L.
author_facet Britten, Richard A.
Limoli, Charles L.
author_sort Britten, Richard A.
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description Traditionally, the brain has been regarded as a relatively insensitive late-reacting tissue, with radiologically detectable damage not being reported at doses < 60 Gy. When NASA proposed interplanetary exploration missions, it was required to conduct an intensive health and safety evaluation of cancer, cardiovascular, and cognitive risks associated with exposure to deep space radiation (SR). The SR dose that astronauts on a mission to Mars are predicted to receive is ~300 mGy. Even after correcting for the higher RBE of the SR particles, the biologically effective SR dose (<1 Gy) would still be 60-fold lower than the threshold dose for clinically detectable neurological damage. Unexpectedly, the NASA-funded research program has consistently reported that low (<250 mGy) doses of SR induce deficits in multiple cognitive functions. This review will discuss these findings and the radical paradigm shifts in radiobiological principles for the brain that were required in light of these findings. These included a shift from cell killing to loss of function models, an expansion of the critical brain regions for radiation-induced cognitive impediments, and the concept that the neuron may not be the sole critical target for neurocognitive impairment. The accrued information on how SR exposure impacts neurocognitive performance may provide new opportunities to reduce neurocognitive impairment in brain cancer patients.
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spelling pubmed-103039692023-06-29 New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research Britten, Richard A. Limoli, Charles L. Life (Basel) Opinion Traditionally, the brain has been regarded as a relatively insensitive late-reacting tissue, with radiologically detectable damage not being reported at doses < 60 Gy. When NASA proposed interplanetary exploration missions, it was required to conduct an intensive health and safety evaluation of cancer, cardiovascular, and cognitive risks associated with exposure to deep space radiation (SR). The SR dose that astronauts on a mission to Mars are predicted to receive is ~300 mGy. Even after correcting for the higher RBE of the SR particles, the biologically effective SR dose (<1 Gy) would still be 60-fold lower than the threshold dose for clinically detectable neurological damage. Unexpectedly, the NASA-funded research program has consistently reported that low (<250 mGy) doses of SR induce deficits in multiple cognitive functions. This review will discuss these findings and the radical paradigm shifts in radiobiological principles for the brain that were required in light of these findings. These included a shift from cell killing to loss of function models, an expansion of the critical brain regions for radiation-induced cognitive impediments, and the concept that the neuron may not be the sole critical target for neurocognitive impairment. The accrued information on how SR exposure impacts neurocognitive performance may provide new opportunities to reduce neurocognitive impairment in brain cancer patients. MDPI 2023-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10303969/ /pubmed/37374076 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13061293 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Opinion
Britten, Richard A.
Limoli, Charles L.
New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title_full New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title_fullStr New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title_full_unstemmed New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title_short New Radiobiological Principles for the CNS Arising from Space Radiation Research
title_sort new radiobiological principles for the cns arising from space radiation research
topic Opinion
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10303969/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37374076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13061293
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