The ESA IBER-3 project - Gene expression and cytokine monitoring for biodosimetry and radiation sensitivity screening (GYMBRASS)

In order to better understand and define the biological risks of cosmic radiation, it is important to identify biomarkers for exposure and for predicting individual sensitivity to radiation-induced biological damage. Our study aims at identifying new biomarkers for radiation exposure to low and high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation. We will focus on the use of gene, exon and/or cytokine expression signatures in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as biomarkers. These data will be integrated with those from DNA double strand break (DSB) repair kinetics in order to identify biomarkers of individual radiosensitivity. Our preliminary data indicate that gene/exon expression signatures can be used to accurately predict radiation doses of below 0.1 Gy (X-rays). Additionally, specific exon signatures may further enhance the sensitivity of prediction. Also, we found that there is a very strong overlap between gene expression changes in response to high doses (1 Gy) of low (X-ray) and high-LET (C-ions; 50-75 keV/μm) irradiation. However, we also identified genes that only responded to either X-rays or C-ions, suggesting that LET-specific gene signatures may also be identified.