The German Uranium Miners’ Biobank—A Biobank for OMICs Radiation Research

Systematic bio- and databanks are key prerequisites for modern radiation research to investigate radiation response mechanisms in the context of genetic, environmental and lifestyle-associated factors. This report presents the current status of the German Uranium Miners’ Biobank. In 2008, the bio- and databank was established at the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, and the sampling of biological materials from former uranium miners with and without lung cancer was initiated. For this purpose, various biological specimens, such as DNA and RNA, were isolated from blood samples as well as from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lung tissue. High-quality biomaterials suitable for OMICs research and the associated data on occupational radiation and dust exposure, and medical and lifestyle data from over 1000 individuals have been stored so far. Various experimental data, e.g., genome-wide SNPs, whole genome transcriptomic and miRNA data, as well as individual chromosomal aberration data from subgroups of biobank samples, are already available upon request for in-depth research on radiation-induced long-term effects, individual radiation susceptibility to lung cancer and radon-induced fingerprints in lung cancer. This biobank is the first systematic uranium miners´ biobank worldwide that is suitable for OMICs research on radiation-exposed workers. It offers the opportunity to link radiation-induced perturbations of biological pathways or processes and putative adverse outcome(s) by OMICs profiling at different biological organization levels.

Herbal Radioprotectors: A mini-review of the Current Status

Because of our increased dependency on the use of radiation in areas such as the food industry, agriculture, space exploration, diagnostics and treatment of various diseases including cancer, the possibilities of unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation have considerably increased. Hence, there is a need to develop an effective radioprotective agent that can protect against the deleterious effects of ionizing radiation. So far, many synthetic and natural substances studied for use as radioprotectors have failed to reach clinics. Natural compounds are becoming more popular in radiation research due to their low toxicity, higher efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Plants and herbs contain a plethora of bioactive compounds having antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and immunostimulant properties which can act either in isolation or in combination to protect against the harmful effects of ionizing radiation This review mainly focuses on the radioprotective potential of various herbs and plants. The results obtained from various herbal extracts have shown protection against radiation-induced injuries in preclinical studies. This evaluation may help develop a potent radioprotector of desired efficacy.

Radiation Exposure Determination in a Secure, Cloud-based Online Environment

Background: In a major radiation incident, the speed of sample processing and interpretation of estimated exposures will be critical for triaging individuals. The Automated Dicentric Chromosome (DC) Identifier and Dose Estimator System (ADCI) selects and processes images to identify DCs and determines radiation dose without manual review. The goal of this study was to broaden accessibility and speed of this system with data parallelization while protecting data and software integrity. Methods: ADCI_Online is a secure web-streaming platform that can be accessed worldwide from distributed local nodes. Data and software are separated until they are linked for estimation of radiation exposures. Performance is assessed with data from multiple biodosimetry laboratories. Results: Dose estimates from ADCI_Online are identical to ADCI running on dedicated GPU-accelerated hardware. Metaphase image processing, automated image selection, calibration curve generation, and radiation dose estimation of a typical set of samples of unknown exposures were completed in <2 days. Parallelized processing and analyses using cloned software instances on different hardware configurations of samples at the scale of an intermediate-sized radiation accident (54,595 metaphase images) accelerated estimation of radiation doses to within clinically-relevant time frames. Conclusions: The ADCI_Online streaming platform is intended for on-demand, standardized radiation research assessment, biodosimetry proficiency testing, inter-laboratory comparisons, and training. The platform has the capacity to handle analytic bottlenecks in intermediate to large radiation accidents or events.

Ultrasound Diagnostics of the Kidney Carbuncle (Brief Literature Review and Case Report of the Girl 5 Years Old)

The article presents a case of preoperative diagnostics of a rare variant purulent-inflammatory kidney disease in children – the kidney carbuncle. The rarity of the pathology and the early child’s age (5 years old) determined complexity of clinical diagnostics and the importance of radiation research methods. The diagnosis was suspected by ultrasound diagnostics and confirmed by CT. The child was operated on (resection of the upper pole of the kidney), and clinical recovery was achieved. The article includes illustrative material and a brief review of the literature on this problem.

A Missing Puzzle in Dissociative Electron Attachment to Biomolecules: The Detection of Radicals

Ionizing radiation releases a flood of low-energy electrons that often causes the fragmentation of the molecular species it encounters. Special attention has been paid to the electrons’ contribution to DNA damage via the dissociative electron attachment (DEA) process. Although numerous research groups worldwide have probed these processes in the past, and many significant achievements have been made, some technical challenges have hindered researchers from obtaining a complete picture of DEA. Therefore, this research perspective calls urgently for the implementation of advanced techniques to identify non-charged radicals that form from such a decomposition of gas-phase molecules. Having well-described DEA products offers a promise to benefit society by straddling the boundary between physics, chemistry, and biology, and it brings the tools of atomic and molecular physics to bear on relevant issues of radiation research and medicine.

Ewing's extra skeletal sarcoma of the pelvis (Literature review and clinical case)

Timely diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma is an actual problem of our time, since this tumor is characterized by fairly rapid growth and aggressive course. According to literature data, it ranks 2-nd among all bone tumors, second only to osteosarcoma, and is 8.64%. This review article discusses the possibilities of radiation research methods in the early diagnosis of this tumor on the example a clinical observation of the extra-skeletal form of Ewing's sarcoma.

P13.21 PET-based dose painting radiation therapy strategy in a glioblastoma rat model using the small animal radiation research platform

BACKGROUND Previously, a rat glioblastoma model to mimic chemo-radiation treatment of human glioblastoma in the clinic was established. Similarly to the clinic, CT and MRI were combined during the treatment planning process. PET imaging was subsequently added which allowed us to implement sub-volume boosting using a micro-irradiation system. However, combining three imaging modalities (CT, MRI and PET) using a micro-irradiation system, proved to be labour intensive because multimodal imaging, treatment planning and dose delivery have to be completed sequentially in the preclinical setting. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two different methodologies were compared in silico for performing preclinical [18F]FET PET based radiation therapy (20 Gy based on MRI, 8 Gy boost based on PET) based on three different cases. Method 1 is based on the previously published methods1,2. However, the process is automated using an in-house developed MATLAB code. Method 2 consists of a more sophisticated method where a series of isocenters and jaw dimensions for the motorised variable collimator were determined based on the [18F]FET PET uptake. Both methods were evaluated by means of the dose volume histograms (DVH) and Q-volume histograms. RESULTS The setup parameters for both methods were calculated. The DVHs for method 2 are systematically closer to the ideal dose distribution compared to method 1. These findings are confirmed by the D90 and D50 values which are considerably lower for method 1. When observing the Q-factor, method 2 always results in dose distributions that are closer to the dose objectives (method 1: 0.141±0.046; method 2: 0.064±0.011). CONCLUSION The described novel method to optimize the preclinical treatment planning process has many advantages in terms of dose delivery, time efficiency and variability, when compared to the previously used methods1,2. These improvements are important to narrow the gap between clinical and preclinical radiation research and for the development of new therapeutics and/or radiation therapy procedures for glioblastoma. 1. Bolcaen, J., Descamps, B., Boterberg, T., Vanhove, C. & Goethals, I. PET and MRI Guided Irradiation of a Glioblastoma Rat Model Using a Micro-irradiator. J. Vis. Exp. 1–10 (2017) doi:10.3791/56601. 2. Verhoeven, J. et al. Technical feasibility of [18F]FET and [18F]FAZA PET guided radiotherapy in a F98 glioblastoma rat model. Radiat. Oncol. 14, (2019).