Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation Therapy: A Novel Treatment for Post-Concussion Syndrome?

A subset of victims who experience concussion suffer from persistent symptoms spanning months to years post-injury, termed post-concussion syndrome (PCS). Problematically, there is lack of consensus for the treatment of PCS. Concussion injury involves a neurometabolic cascade leading to oxidative stress and neuroinflammation which parallels the oxidative stress loading occuring from age-related neurodegenerative conditions. Historical and recent evidence has emerged showing the efficacy of low-dose radiation therapy for many human diseases including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzhiemer’s disease (AD). Due to the pathognomonic similarities of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation involved in PCS and neurodegenerative disease, treatments that prove successful for neurodegenerative disease may prove successful for PCS. Recently, low-dose ionizing radiation therapy (LDIR) has been documented to show a reversal of many symptoms in AD, including improved cognition. LDIR is thought to induce a switching from proinflammatory M1 phenotype to an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. In other words, a continual upregulation of the adaptive protection systems via LDIR induces health enhancement. It is hypothesized LDIR treatment for PCS would mimic that seen from early evidence of LDIR treatment of AD patients who suffer from similar oxidative stress loading. We propose the application of LDIR is a promising, untapped treatment for PCS.