New insights on cell death from radiation exposure.
Ionising radiation has been an important part of cancer treatment for almost a century, being used in external-beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, and targeted radionuclide therapy. At the molecular and cellular level, cell killing has been attributed to deposition of energy from the radiation in the DNA within the nucleus, with production of DNA double-strand breaks playing a central part. However, this DNA-centric model has been questioned because cell-death pathways, in which direct relations between cell killing and DNA damage diverge, have been reported. These pathways include membrane-dependent signalling pathways and bystander responses (when cells respond not to direct radiation exposure but to the irradiation of their neighbouring cells). New insights into mechanisms of these responses coupled with technological advances in targeting of cells in experimental systems with microbeams have led to a reassessment of the model of how cells are killed by ionising radiation. This review provides an update on these mechanisms.
Gray Cancer Institute, Mount Vernon Hospital, PO Box 100, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 2JR, UK. prise@gci.ac.uk
Kevin M
KM
Prise
Giuseppe
G
Schettino
Melvyn
M
Folkard
Kathryn D
KD
Held
D000818:Animals; D024201:Bystander Effect; D016923:Cell Death / Q000528:radiation effects*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004249:DNA Damage; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D051381:Rats; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000528:radiation effects; D013679:Technology, Radiologic