研究人员近日宣称，他们已经确定了一些影响人体对辐射做出反应的基因，该发现可能有助于医生调整对癌症等疾病的放射疗法，以达到最好的治疗效果。研究发表在最新一期《自然》杂志上。
宾夕法尼亚大学薇薇安·陈领导了这项研究，结果表明，大约有1200个基因影响细胞对辐射的反应，而这些基因都还不为人所知。
研究团队使用了30个毫无关系的人捐赠的细胞进行了研究，并且用铯放射线对这些细胞进行了照射。研究结果表明，每个基因对辐射的反应都不一样。有些DNA的表达或活动会增加，有些会减少，还有一些控制其他基因活动的转录因子对辐射也有影响，也有一些基因同辐射反应没有联系。她表示，该研究能够确定辐射对人们的负面影响，以供医生参考。
研究指出，这些结果对理解人体细胞如何对辐射做出反应具有重要意义。医生可以使用这些信息来保护病人，而且，这些信息也有助于研发新药来提高放疗效果。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature advance online publication 6 April 2009 | doi:10.1038/nature07940
Genetic analysis of radiation-induced changes in human gene expression
Denis A. Smirnov1, Michael Morley2, Eunice Shin2, Richard S. Spielman3 & Vivian G. Cheung1,2,3,4
1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
2 The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,
3 Department of Genetics and,
4 Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
Humans are exposed to radiation through the environment and in medical settings. To deal with radiation-induced damage, cells mount complex responses that rely on changes in gene expression. These gene expression responses differ greatly between individuals1 and contribute to individual differences in response to radiation2. Here we identify regulators that influence expression levels of radiation-responsive genes. We treated radiation-induced changes in gene expression as quantitative phenotypes3, 4, and conducted genetic linkage and association studies to map their regulators. For more than 1,200 of these phenotypes there was significant evidence of linkage to specific chromosomal regions. Nearly all of the regulators act in trans to influence the expression of their target genes; there are very few cis-acting regulators. Some of the trans-acting regulators are transcription factors, but others are genes that were not known to have a regulatory function in radiation response. These results have implications for our basic and clinical understanding of how human cells respond to radiation.
