Impact of Ionising Radiation on the Human Brain: A Genomics Assessment
What was the aim of this research?
This research explored how exposure to ionising radiation —the kind that comes from medical treatments, nuclear accidents, or certain jobs—might affect the human brain. Although it's known that radiation can damage cells, its long-term effects on thinking, memory, and brain health are not well understood.
How was the study being carried out?
This research looked at how exposure to ionising radiation changes the activity of genes in the brain, using a wide range of different genomic data-sets. This included information from healthy and diseased brain tissue, lab-grown human cells exposed to radiation. The study also looked at genetic variants in data from British military veterans who may have been exposed to radiation during participation at nuclear testing sites.
Key findings include:
- Healthy brains showed tightly controlled gene activity related to brain signalling, stress response, and energy use.
- Brain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease had clear gene activity changes linked to inflammation, metabolism, and uncontrolled cell growth.
- Psychiatric disorders showed fewer gene changes, pointing to more complex causes for symptoms.
- In published data from lab-grown cells, more genes were affected at higher radiation doses, though the relationship wasn’t strictly dose-dependent. Important genes involved in DNA repair, stress response, and inflammation were altered, all of which are also linked to brain diseases.
- Some specific gene activity changes could act as biomarkers—biological signs of radiation exposure.
- In the veteran study, there were no major differences in the amount or type of somatic mutations between nuclear test and control veterans. However, both groups had certain mutations possibly linked to aging and brain function, which require more investigation.
Researcher Justin Dankwa supervised by Dr Cristina Sisu and Professor Rhona Anderson