Biological outcomes of γ-radiation induced DNA damages in breast and lung cancer cells pretreated with free radical scavengers

Abstract

Purpose: Investigation of effects on DNA of γ-irradiated human cancer cells pretreated with free radical scavengers is aimed to create reference data which would enable assessment of the relative efficiency of high linear energy transfer (LET) radiations used in hadron therapy, i.e. protons and carbon ions.

Materials and methods: MCF-7 breast and HTB177 lung cancer cells are irradiated with γ-rays. To minimize indirect effects of irradiation, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or glycerol are applied as free radical scavengers. Biological response to irradiation is evaluated through clonogenic cell survival, immunocytochemical and cell cycle analysis, as well as expression of proteins involved in DNA damage response.

Results: Examined cell lines reveal similar level of radioresistance. Application of scavengers leads to the rise of cell survival and decreases the number of DNA double strand breaks in irradiated cells. Differences in cell cycle and protein expression between the two cell lines are probably caused by different DNA damage repair mechanisms that are activated.

Conclusion: The obtained results show that DMSO and glycerol have good scavenging capacity, and may be used to minimize DNA damage induced by free radicals. Therefore, they will be used as the reference for comparison with high LET irradiations, as well as good experimental data suitable for validation of numerical simulations.

Keywords:

• Breast cancer cells
• non-small cell lung cancer cells
• γ-rays
• free radical scavengers

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia (grants 173046 and 171019).

Notes on contributors

Vladana D. Petković

Vladana Petković received her Master degree from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology. She is a Ph.D. student at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, working on her thesis at the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the University of Belgrade.

Otilija D. Keta

Otilija Keta received her Ph.D. from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology. Presently she is engaged as Research Assistant Professor at the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the University of Belgrade.

Marija Z. Vidosavljević

Marija Vidosavljević obtained her Master degree from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Pharmacy. She is a Ph.D. student at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, working on her thesis at the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the University of Belgrade.

Sebastien Incerti

Sebastien Incerti received his PhD from Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France. He is a Research Director in the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3) of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France. He is involved in development of the Geant4 general purpose and open-source particle-matter simulation toolkit.

Aleksandra M. Ristić Fira

Aleksandra Ristić Fira received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology. She is a Research Professor at the University of Belgrade, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences. She is head of Laboratory of radiation biology and is actualy engaged in teaching and research.

Ivan M. Petrović

Ivan Petrović received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the Univesity of Paris XI - South (Orsay), France. He is a Research Professor in the Department of Physics at the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and is actively involved in research and teaching.