A protein may help prevent radiation damage

Spanish researchers recently reported in the American Journal of Science that raising the level of a protein in the body protects the gastrointestinal tract from radiation damage. This discovery not only reduces the side effects of radiation therapy on cancer patients, but also promises to protect the health of victims of nuclear disasters and astronauts. Radiotherapy inhibits the growth of cancer cells by high-energy radiation, but it also injures healthy cells, sometimes induces gastrointestinal syndrome and even leads to death. Researchers from the National Cancer Research Center of Spain and other institutions found that after exposure to high doses of radiation, mice with a high protein content called URI did not have gastrointestinal syndrome, but all survived, and 70% of normal mice with normal protein content died of gastrointestinal syndrome. The mice with lower protein content all died of gastrointestinal syndrome.

Researchers said that although the function of URI protein was not fully understood at present, they found a mechanism by which URI protects cells from radiation damage. URI proteins are expressed in a dormant stem cell population located in the intestinal crypt. When URI proteins are expressed in these stem cell populations, these cells do not proliferate and therefore are not exposed to radiation, because radiation only affects proliferating cells. When there is no such protein in the stem cell population, the overexpression of oncogene induces cell proliferation, which leads to cell sensitivity to radiation damage and cell death.