Ionizing Radiation Protein Biomarkers in Normal Tissue and Their Correlation to Radiosensitivity: A Systematic Review

Background and objectives: Exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) has increased immensely over the past years, owing to diagnostic and therapeutic reasons. However, certain radiosensitive individuals show toxic enhanced reaction to IR, and it is necessary to specifically protect them from unwanted exposure. Although predicting radiosensitivity is the way forward in the field of personalised medicine, there is limited information on the potential biomarkers. The aim of this systematic review is to identify evidence from a range of literature in order to present the status quo of our knowledge of IR-induced changes in protein expression in normal tissues, which can be correlated to radiosensitivity. Methods: Studies were searched in NCBI Pubmed and in ISI Web of Science databases and field experts were consulted for relevant studies. Primary peer-reviewed studies in English language within the time-frame of 2011 to 2020 were considered. Human non-tumour tissues and human-derived non-tumour model systems that have been exposed to IR were considered if they reported changes in protein levels, which could be correlated to radiosensitivity. At least two reviewers screened the titles, keywords, and abstracts of the studies against the eligibility criteria at the first phase and full texts of potential studies at the second phase. Similarly, at least two reviewers manually extracted the data and accessed the risk of bias (National Toxicology Program/Office for Health Assessment and Translation—NTP/OHAT) for the included studies. Finally, the data were synthesised narratively in accordance to synthesis without meta analyses (SWiM) method. Results: In total, 28 studies were included in this review. Most of the records (16) demonstrated increased residual DNA damage in radiosensitive individuals compared to normo-sensitive individuals based on γH2AX and TP53BP1. Overall, 15 studies included proteins other than DNA repair foci, of which five proteins were selected, Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Caspase 3, p16(INK4A) (Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A, CDKN2A), Interleukin-6, and Interleukin-1β, that were connected to radiosensitivity in normal tissue and were reported at least in two independent studies. Conclusions and implication of key findings: A majority of studies used repair foci as a tool to predict radiosensitivity. However, its correlation to outcome parameters such as repair deficient cell lines and patients, as well as an association to moderate and severe clinical radiation reactions, still remain contradictory. When IR-induced proteins reported in at least two studies were considered, a protein network was discovered, which provides a direction for further studies to elucidate the mechanisms of radiosensitivity. Although the identification of only a few of the commonly reported proteins might raise a concern, this could be because (i) our eligibility criteria were strict and (ii) radiosensitivity is influenced by multiple factors. Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42020220064).