Radiation and CNS effects: summary of evidence from a recent symposium of the Radiation Research Society

Abstract

This article summarizes a Symposium on ‘Radiation risks of the central nervous system’ held virtually at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society, 3–6 October 2021. Repeated low-dose radiation exposure over a certain period could lead to reduced neuronal proliferation, altered neurogenesis, neuroinflammation and various neurological complications, including psychological consequences, necessitating further research in these areas. Four speakers from radiation biology, genetics and epidemiology presented the latest data from their studies seeking insights into this important topic. This symposium highlighted new and important directions for further research on mental health disorders, neurodegenerative conditions and cognitive impairment. Future studies will examine risks of mental and behavioral disorders and neurodegenerative diseases following protracted radiation exposures to better understand risks of occupational exposures as well as provide insights into risks from exposures to galactic cosmic rays.

Keywords:

• CNS effects
• radiation
• neurodegenerative diseases
• Parkinson’s disease
• dementia
• radiation risks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The content of this article is the sole responsibility of its authors and does not necessarily represent the views of NCRP, VUMC, MSKCC, DOE, NASA or the US Navy.

Acknowledgements

Boice et al. are grateful to the over 100 colleagues who have collaborated on the Million Person Study of Low-Level Health Effects, and to the funding partners who make their recent studies of cognition possible: NASA (80NSSC19M0161), DOE (DE-AU0000046) and US Navy (N00024-17-C-4322).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization (IARC/WHO), the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the IARC/WHO.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lydia B. Zablotska

Lydia B. Zablotska, MD, PhD, is a Salvatore Pablo Lucia Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she serves as the Leader of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Area of Concentration. Dr. Zablotska is a physician and epidemiologist with extensive training and publications in radiation epidemiology, biostatistics, and risk modeling. Her research activities have focused primarily on the examination of risks of radiation exposures in various occupational and environmental settings. Dr. Zablotska’s work has clarified the understanding of the effects of occupational radiation exposures on health risks of nuclear power industry workers and workers of the uranium fuel production cycle in various occupational cohorts from the United States and Canada. She has also led/been involved in studies of those affected by the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine and of patients exposed to repeated radiation diagnostic imaging procedures. Dr. Zablotska is a member of NCRP and was responsible for a highly acclaimed workshop for young radiation epidemiology investigators for the Conference of Radiation and Health and RRS.

Ljubica Zupunski

Ljubica Zupunski, PhD, MPH, is a postdoctoral scientist in the Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch, at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. Dr. Zupunski is a molecular biologist and physiologist with experience in radiation protection, cancer risk assessment and radiation epidemiology. Her research activities are focused on the cancer risks in population highly exposed to radionuclides released after Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Dr. Zupunski is also working on the environmental exposures to uranium in the populations living in the proximity to mine tailings.

Klervi Leuraud

Klervi Leuraud, PhD, is an epidemiologist. She directs the Research Department on the Biological and Health Effects of Ionizing Radiation at the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). Her research activities focus on the effects of occupational exposure to radiation in nuclear workers. She is participating in the international INWORKS study. Klervi Leuraud serves as an expert on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

Julie Lopes

Julie Lopes is a PhD student in radiation epidemiology at the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). Her research activities focus on the effects of occupational exposure in medical workers, with a particular interest in the central nervous system.

Joshua Hinkle

Joshua Hinkle, PhD, received his degree in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in 2020 examining the effects of cranial irradiation on healthy rodent brain. He is currently an IRTA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Molecular Mechanisms of Cellular Stress and Inflammation Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Tyler Pugeda

Tyler Pugeda, MS, carried out a summer research project in Dr. O’Banion’s laboratory investigating the time course of microglial activation and synaptic loss after cranial irradiation. Tyler received his MS with concentrations in Cell Biology and Healthcare Entrepreneurship at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and recently completed a Fulbright Scholarship studying Alzheimer’s disease in Germany.

Thomas Delgado

Thomas Delgado, BS, is a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. He is pursuing his PhD research in the Neuroscience Graduate Program focusing on astrocytic reaction to injury.

John Olschowka

John Olschowka, PhD, is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He and Dr. O’Banion are long-time collaborators in research related to Alzheimer’s disease and CNS radiation injury, and together run the Laboratory for Neuroinflammation in the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience.

Jacqueline Williams

Jacqueline Williams, PhD, is Professor of Environmental Medicine, and a member of the Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester, New York. Trained in Radiation Biology at the University of London, Dr. William’s research focuses on normal tissue effects of radiation and the development of mitigation strategies based on restoring normal tissue homeostasis.

M. Kerry O’Banion

M. Kerry O’Banion, MD, PhD, is Professor and Vice-Chair of Neuroscience, Professor of Neurology, and a member of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience and the Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester, New York, where he also serves as Director of the Medical Scientist (MD-PhD) Training Program. His research focuses on neuroinflammation and glial cell biology, emphasizing cellular interactions in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in CNS radiation exposure, and how these contribute to pathology and cognitive deficits in preclinical models.

John D. Boice

John D. Boice, Jr. is the Director of Science at the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and Professor at Vanderbilt University. He served on the Main Commission of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and on the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. He directs the Million Person Study of Low-Level Health Effects, which includes a large-scale evaluation of cognitive impairment and neurological effects following low-LET and high-LET exposure to brain.

Sarah S. Cohen

Sarah S. Cohen, PhD, is a Senior Managing Epidemiologist at EpidStrategies, a division of ToxStrategies, and an Adjunct Assistant Research Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has been a collaborator on the Million Person Study of Low-Dose Health Effects for nearly twenty years.

Michael T. Mumma

Michael T. Mumma is the Director of Information Technology at the International Epidemiology Institute and the International Epidemiology Field Station for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He has over 20 years of experience in data analysis and conducting epidemiologic investigations.

Lawrence T. Dauer

Lawrence T. Dauer, PhD, is an Attending Physicist specializing in radiation protection at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology. He is a Council and Board member of the NCRP and served as a member of the ICRP Committee 3, Protection in Medicine.

Richard A. Britten

Richard A. Britten, PhD, is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), where he finally settled after working in the UK, the USA and Canada. His 30-year career in radiation biology, has been quite varied but the one consistent factor has been an emphasis on particle radiation [fast neutrons, protons, Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR)]. Professor. Britten is currently funded by NASA to determine the incidence and mechanistic basis of GCR-induced neurocognitive impairment, the interaction of sleep perturbation and GCR on neurocognitive performance, and is also part of the UC-Irvine NSCOR. His program has now started to investigate the breakdown of neural network functioning after exposure to radiation and chemotherapeutic agents, with a particular focus on pediatric cancer patients.

Samuel Stephenson

Samuel Stephenson, B.S.Ed., is a fourth-year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). He completed his undergrad at the University of Virginia and majored in kinesiology before beginning medical school. Mr. Stephenson has a passion for aerospace medicine and has worked with Professor Britten throughout his time at EVMS with an emphasis on switch task development and testing in response to Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) and He radiation. Mr. Stephenson is pursuing his residency training in internal medicine with the goal of following that up with aerospace medicine training to become a flight surgeon.