Other Funding
Program Background
Established in 2005, the Inter-Agency Agreement between the NIAID and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) funds research in several areas related to the challenges encountered following radiological or nuclear events. These include: 1) identifying who has been exposed to radiation and estimating the dose that they have received, and 2) providing countermeasures to mitigate or treat radiation injury. To this end, AFRRI is funded to establish inter-laboratory cytogenetics comparisons, and automate the detection of radiation-induced changes in the DNA, with the hope that this will speed the triage of potentially radiation-exposed populations in the wake of a terrorist attack. Another aspect of the funding is the screening of potential countermeasures, to determine their efficacy in treating radiation damage in a rodent survival model.
Research Highlights
Funding through the IAA with AFRRI has led to the first inter-laboratory comparison of the DNA dicentric assay since 1988. Long recognized as the gold standard for determination of radiation exposure, the dicentric assay has traditionally been a very time-consuming and low-throughput means of determining radiation dose received. In addition to validating use of the assay across 5 international laboratories, parallel NIAID-funded work at AFRRI has automated dicentric sample processing for triage of large populations, with a throughput of approximately 500 samples per laboratory per week. Taken together, these advancements represent important steps toward establishing a domestic network of biodosimetry laboratories, similar to those already in place in Canada and across Europe. In addition, to date AFRRI has screened more than 10 potential countermeasures, using their mouse model of radiation exposure.
Program Background
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are cooperating on specific research and development projects that fall within the following general areas: 1) development of safe and effective medical countermeasures to prevent, mitigate, and treat the immediate and long-term medical effects of ionizing radiation; 2) improvement of the basic understanding of radiation-related health risks associated with types and levels of radiation exposure (epidemiology & dosimetry), mechanisms of radiation injury, and host responses; and, 3) development of biology-based diagnostic assays or biomarkers to assess cellular and tissue damage following exposure to ionizing radiation. The following laboratories/programs within intramural NCI are being funded:
Research Highlights
Scientific accomplishments for this program include:
- Finding of a large bystander effect in 3-dimensional skin and airway radiation exposure models. This has implications for effects of partial body irradiations or inhomogeneous exposures.
- Demonstration of a clear separation in metabolomic signatures between sham and irradiated in vitro samples, with little variation between sham-irradiated cells, and identification of several candidate metabolomic markers for radiation exposure.
- Analysis of I-131 biokinetic data from 140 patients treated with I-131 for hyperthyroid, EPR analysis of 103 teeth from Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan populations exposed to radiation, and testing of a novel biodosimetry system based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
- Synthesis of 8 nitroxide analogs and irradiation of 1,275 mice (2 strains) in order to evaluate the efficacy of Tempol food in minimizing radiation-induced carcinogenesis.
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