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Zou Y, Wang L, Wen J, Cheng J, Li C, Hao Z, Zou J, Gao M, Li W, Wu J, Xie H, Liu J. Progress in biological and medical research in the deep underground: an update. Front Public Health 2023; 11:1249742. [PMID: 37637794 PMCID: PMC10447979 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1249742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023] Open
Abstract
As the growing population of individuals residing or working in deep underground spaces for prolonged periods, it has become imperative to understand the influence of factors in the deep underground environment (DUGE) on living systems. Heping Xie has conceptualized the concept of deep underground medicine to identify factors in the DUGE that can have either detrimental or beneficial effects on human health. Over the past few years, an increasing number of studies have explored the molecular mechanisms that underlie the biological impacts of factors in the DUGE on model organisms and humans. Here, we present a summary of the present landscape of biological and medical research conducted in deep underground laboratories and propose promising avenues for future investigations in this field. Most research demonstrates that low background radiation can trigger a stress response and affect the growth, organelles, oxidative stress, defense capacity, and metabolism of cells. Studies show that residing and/or working in the DUGE has detrimental effects on human health. Employees working in deep mines suffer from intense discomfort caused by high temperature and humidity, which increase with depth, and experience fatigue and sleep disturbance. The negative impacts of the DUGE on human health may be induced by changes in the metabolism of specific amino acids; however, the cellular pathways remain to be elucidated. Biological and medical research must continue in deep underground laboratories and mines to guarantee the safe probing of uncharted depths as humans utilize the deep underground space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuhao Zou
- Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Ling Wang
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jirui Wen
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Juan Cheng
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Can Li
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Zhizhen Hao
- Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jian Zou
- Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Mingzhong Gao
- College of Water Resources and Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Institute of Deep Earth Science and Green Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Weimin Li
- West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jiang Wu
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Heping Xie
- College of Water Resources and Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Institute of Deep Earth Science and Green Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jifeng Liu
- Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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Porrazzo A, Esposito G, Grifoni D, Cenci G, Morciano P, Tabocchini MA. Reduced Environmental Dose Rates Are Responsible for the Increased Susceptibility to Radiation-Induced DNA Damage in Larval Neuroblasts of Drosophila Grown inside the LNGS Underground Laboratory. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23105472. [PMID: 35628279 PMCID: PMC9143493 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23105472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
A large amount of evidence from radiobiology studies carried out in Deep Underground Laboratories support the view that environmental radiation may trigger biological mechanisms that enable both simple and complex organisms to cope with genotoxic stress. In line with this, here we show that the reduced radiation background of the LNGS underground laboratory renders Drosophila neuroblasts more sensitive to ionizing radiation-induced (but not to spontaneous) DNA breaks compared to fruit flies kept at the external reference laboratory. Interestingly, we demonstrate that the ionizing radiation sensitivity of flies kept at the LNGS underground laboratory is rescued by increasing the underground gamma dose rate to levels comparable to the low-LET reference one. This finding provides the first direct evidence that the modulation of the DNA damage response in a complex multicellular organism is indeed dependent on the environmental dose rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonella Porrazzo
- Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “C. Darwin”, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy; (A.P.); (G.C.)
| | - Giuseppe Esposito
- Centro Nazionale per le Tecnologie Innovative in Sanità Pubblica (TISP), Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), 00161 Rome, Italy;
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione Roma 1, 00185 Rome, Italy
- Correspondence: (G.E.); (P.M.)
| | - Daniela Grifoni
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica, Sanità Pubblica, Scienze Della Vita e Dell’ambiente, Università Dell’aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy;
| | - Giovanni Cenci
- Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “C. Darwin”, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy; (A.P.); (G.C.)
- Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti, Istituto Pasteur, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - Patrizia Morciano
- Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), INFN, Assergi, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
- Correspondence: (G.E.); (P.M.)
| | - Maria Antonella Tabocchini
- Centro Nazionale per le Tecnologie Innovative in Sanità Pubblica (TISP), Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), 00161 Rome, Italy;
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione Roma 1, 00185 Rome, Italy
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Seong KM, Cenci G. Editorial: The Genetic and Epigenetic Bases of Cellular Response to Ionizing Radiation. Front Genet 2022; 13:857168. [PMID: 35309150 PMCID: PMC8931710 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.857168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Ki Moon Seong
- Laboratory of Biological Dosimetry, National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, South Korea
- *Correspondence: Ki Moon Seong, ; Giovanni Cenci,
| | - Giovanni Cenci
- Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “C. Darwin”, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
- Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti/Istituto Pasteur Italia, Rome, Italy
- *Correspondence: Ki Moon Seong, ; Giovanni Cenci,
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Zarubin M, Gangapshev A, Gavriljuk Y, Kazalov V, Kravchenko E. First transcriptome profiling of D. melanogaster after development in a deep underground low radiation background laboratory. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0255066. [PMID: 34351964 PMCID: PMC8341612 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural background radiation is a permanent multicomponent factor. It has an influence on biological organisms, but effects of its deprivation still remain unclear. The aim of our work was to study for the first time responses of D. melanogaster to conditions of the Deep Underground Low-Background Laboratory DULB-4900 (BNO, INR, RAS, Russia) at the transcriptome level by RNA-seq profiling. Overall 77 transcripts demonstrated differential abundance between flies exposed to low and natural background radiation. Enriched biological process functional categories were established for all genes with differential expression. The results showed down-regulation of primary metabolic processes and up-regulation of both the immune system process and the response to stimuli. The comparative analysis of our data and publicly available transcriptome data on D. melanogaster exposed to low and high doses of ionizing radiation did not reveal common DEGs in them. We hypothesize that the observed changes in gene expression can be explained by the influence of the underground conditions in DULB-4900, in particular, by the lack of stimuli. Thus, our study challenges the validity of the LNT model for the region of background radiation doses below a certain level (~16.4 nGy h-1) and the presence of a dose threshold for D. melanogaster.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Albert Gangapshev
- Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Yuri Gavriljuk
- Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vladimir Kazalov
- Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Elena Kravchenko
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, DLNP, Dubna, Russia
- * E-mail:
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Tabocchini MA. A forty-year journey from "classical" biophysics and radiobiology to hadrontherapy, space radiation and low dose rate underground radiobiology. Int J Radiat Biol 2021; 98:383-394. [PMID: 34259611 DOI: 10.1080/09553002.2021.1948142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE As a biologist who, since the beginning of her involvement in science, has collaborated closely with physicists, I want to share my forty years of experience describing the events that introduced me to the world of charged particle radiation biology as well as that of low doses/dose rates, with related implications in medicine and radiation protection. CONCLUSION The main features of my experience can be summarized in the development of an interdisciplinary culture and in the interest in technological advances for the study of biological responses to radiation in different scenarios, relevant for public health. Mine was a journey that began by chance, but which led me to a world that proved to be of great interest to me. With the current advances in science, the new generations of scientists have new opportunities that I wish them to face with the same interest and enthusiasm that I felt for such an interdisciplinary field as that of radiation biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Antonella Tabocchini
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Rome, Italy.,Formerly: Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), National Center for Innovative Technologies in Public Health, Rome, Italy
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