Radioprotective Agents
Abstract
The events of radiation-induced injury and death in mammals exert effects at the molecular, cellular, and organism levels. Such events can be minimized or reduced with the use of exogenous chemicals as antiradiation agents. The processes by which radiation damage is ameliorated can be explained in terms of radical scavenging, hydrogen-transfer reactions, mixed-disulfide formation, and hypoxia and hypothermia induction. Testing of a candidate agent for efficacy against lethal ionizing radiation is usually performed in mice at the maximum tolerated dose, which is administered intraperitoneally 15-30 minutes prior to radiation exposure. Survival of the treated animals for 30 days, when then is 100% mortality of the controls, indicates that the tested compound possesses radioprotective properties. Antiradiation agents fall into the following classes: thiols, di and trisulfides, organic thiosulfates, phosphorothioates, thioureas, and selenium compounds, and they tend to be modeled after 2-mercapto-ethylamine. There is a smaller group consisting of antioxidants, mitotic-suppressive agents, psychotropic drugs, and biogeneic amines. Several additional uses for radioprotective agents are in treatment of heavy metal poisoning, in chemoprotection during cancer radio- and chemotherapy, in the therapy of hemorrhagic, endotoxin, and anaphylactic shock, and in space travel.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA120556
Entities
People
- Daniel L. Klayman
- Edmund S. Copeland
Organizations
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research