Radiation as a Tool against Neurodegeneration—A Potential Treatment for Amyloidosis in the Central Nervous System

Radiotherapy (RT) is a relatively safe and established treatment for cancer, where the goal is to kill tumoral cells with the lowest toxicity to healthy tissues. Using it for disorders involving cell loss is counterintuitive. However, ionizing radiation has a hormetic nature: it can have deleterious...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 20; p. 12265
Main Authors:	Coelho, Carina Marques, Pereira, Lia, Teubig, Pamela, Santos, Pedro, Mendes, Filipa, Viñals, Sílvia, Galaviz, Daniel, Herrera, Federico
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Basel MDPI AG 14-10-2022 MDPI
Subjects:	Alzheimer's disease Amyloid Amyloidogenesis Amyloidosis Animal models Apoptosis Autophagy Biological effects Cancer therapies Cell culture Central nervous system Clinical trials Dosimetry Energy Health services Homeostasis Inflammation Ionizing radiation Nanoparticles Nervous system Neurodegeneration Nitric oxide Oxidative stress Parkinson's disease Protein folding Proteins Radiation Radiation therapy Regeneration Regeneration (physiology) Review Tissue engineering Toxicity
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Summary:	Radiotherapy (RT) is a relatively safe and established treatment for cancer, where the goal is to kill tumoral cells with the lowest toxicity to healthy tissues. Using it for disorders involving cell loss is counterintuitive. However, ionizing radiation has a hormetic nature: it can have deleterious or beneficial effects depending on how it is applied. Current evidence indicates that radiation could be a promising treatment for neurodegenerative disorders involving protein misfolding and amyloidogenesis, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases. Low-dose RT can trigger antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and tissue regeneration responses. RT has been used to treat peripheral amyloidosis, which is very similar to other neurodegenerative disorders from a molecular perspective. Ionizing radiation prevents amyloid formation and other hallmarks in cell cultures, animal models and pilot clinical trials. Although some hypotheses have been formulated, the mechanism of action of RT on systemic amyloid deposits is still unclear, and uncertainty remains regarding its impact in the central nervous system. However, new RT modalities such as low-dose RT, FLASH, proton therapy or nanoparticle-enhanced RT could increase biological effects while reducing toxicity. Current evidence indicates that the potential of RT to treat neurodegeneration should be further explored.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:	1422-0067 1661-6596 1422-0067
DOI:	10.3390/ijms232012265