Radiation countermeasure agents: an update.
BACKGROUND
Ionizing radiation (IR) can produce deleterious effects in living tissues, leading to significant morbidity and a potentially fatal illness affecting various organs dose-dependently. As people may be exposed to IR during cancer radiotherapy or as a result of a radiological/nuclear incident or act of terrorism, the danger of irradiation represents a serious public health problem. At present, however, this problem remains largely impervious to medical management. There is, therefore, a pressing need to develop safe and effective radiation countermeasure (RC) agents to prevent, mitigate or treat the harmful consequences of IR exposure.


METHODS
Recent advances in the search for RC agents as reflected by the relevant patent literature of the past five years along with peer-reviewed publications are surveyed.


RESULTS
A total of 43 patents, describing approximately 38 chemically diverse compounds with RC potential are analyzed. These include antioxidants capable of scavenging IR-induced free radicals, modulators of cell death signaling or cell cycle progression, cytokines or growth factors promoting tissue repair and inhibitors of inflammatory cytokines.


CONCLUSIONS
Several of these RC candidates appear promising, including at least two that are undergoing evaluation for fast-track clinical development.
Dumont
Francis
F
Université de Strasbourg, Centre Régional de Lutte contre le Cancer Paul Strauss, Laboratoire de Radiobiologie EA-3430, 3 rue de la Porte de l'Hôpital, F-67065 Strasbourg, France.
Le Roux
Antoine
A
Bischoff
Pierre
P
D000818:Animals; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D010330:Patents as Topic; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods*; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology*
D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents