Localized FLASH Radiotherapy Reduces Long-Term Skin and Muscle Damage While Preserving Systemic Homeostasis
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ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA1322311 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
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Project description:Radiotherapy (RT) is a cornerstone treatment for nearly 50% of cancer patients, yet its efficacy remains limited by cumulative damage to healthy tissues over time. Delivering RT at ultra-high dose rates (FLASH-RT) represents a transformative strategy, as it appears to maintain tumor control, while sparing the surrounding normal tissue—a phenomenon termed FLASH effect. Here, we compared electron FLASH-RT and conventional RT (CONV-RT) on skin and muscle tissue of naïve mice assessing tissue integrity and gene expression. Bulk RNA sequencing revealed striking differences: FLASH induced minimal transcriptional disruption in skin and muscle, whereas CONV-RT triggered thousands of differentially expressed genes, including massive activation of fibrosis, inflammation, cell death-related pathways in skin, and broad dysregulation of genes linked to muscle function, remodeling and the unfolded protein response. Histological and ultrastructural analyses corroborated the findings, showing reduced immune infiltration in the skin and preserved tissue architecture both in skin and muscle following FLASH. In conclusion our study not only confirms the protective nature of FLASH but also provides novel mechanistic insights into the cascade linking local injury to systemic dysfunction under CONV-RT, reinforcing the translational potential of FLASH to expand the therapeutic window of radiotherapy.
2025-09-15 | GSE307570 | GEO
Project description:Hypoxic tumors are sensitive to FLASH radiotherapy
| PRJNA926967 | ENA
Project description:Purpose: Tumor hypoxia is a major cause of treatment resistance, especially to radiation therapy at conventional dose rate (CONV), and we wanted to assess whether hypoxia does alter tumor sensitivity to FLASH. Methods and materials: We engrafted several tumor types (glioblastoma [GBM], head and neck cancer, and lung adenocarcinoma) subcutaneously in mice to provide a reliable and rigorous way to modulate oxygen supply via vascular clamping or carbogen breathing. We irradiated tumors using a single 20-Gy fraction at either CONV or FLASH, measured oxygen tension, monitored tumor growth, and sampled tumors for bulk RNAseq and pimonidazole analysis. Next, we inhibited glycolysis with trametinib in GBM tumors to enhance FLASH efficacy. Results: Using various subcutaneous tumor models, and in contrast to CONV, FLASH retained antitumor efficacy under acute hypoxia. These findings show that in addition to normal tissue sparing, FLASH could overcome hypoxia-mediated tumor resistance. Follow-up molecular analysis using RNAseq profiling uncovered a FLASH-specific profile in human GBM that involved cell-cycle arrest, decreased ribosomal biogenesis, and a switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. Glycolysis inhibition by trametinib enhanced FLASH efficacy in both normal and clamped conditions. Conclusions: These data provide new and specific insights showing the efficacy of FLASH in a radiation-resistant context, proving an additional benefit of FLASH over CONV.
2024-01-24 | GSE223607 | GEO
Project description:This study aims to assess the effect of conventional radiotherapy compared to FLASH radiotherapy on healthy human lung tissue. FLASH radiotherapy, characterized by ultra-high dose rates, is hypothesized to spare healthy tissue from radiation-induced damage while maintaining efficacy against tumors. To achieve this goal and better characterize this sparing effect, bulk RNA sequencing analysis was conducted on 3 patients to study the molecular and cellular responses of lung tissue to both types of radiotherapy. The main objectives are to evaluate if FLASH radiotherapy effectively spares healthy lung tissue from radiation-induced damage and to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms behind this potential protective effect.
2025-09-08 | GSE263484 | GEO
Project description:Purpose: Studies during the past 9 years suggest that delivering radiation at dose rates exceeding 40 Gy/s, known as “FLASH” radiotherapy, enhances the therapeutic index of radiation therapy (RT) by decreasing normal tissue damage while maintaining tumor response compared to conventional (or standard) RT. This study demonstrates the cardioprotective benefits of FLASH proton RT (F-PRT) compared to standard (conventional) proton RT (S-PRT), as evidenced by reduced acute and chronic cardiac toxicities. Methods and Materials: Mice were imaged using cone beam computed tomography to precisely determine the heart’s apex as the beam isocenter. Irradiation was conducted utilizing a shoot-through technique with a 5mm collimator. Bulk RNA-sequencing was performed on non-irradiated (NR) samples, as well as apexes treated with F-PRT or S-PRT, at 2 weeks following a single 40 Gy dose. Inflammatory responses were assessed through multiplex cytokine/chemokine microbead assay and immunofluorescence analyses. Levels of perivascular fibrosis were quantified using Masson’s Trichrome and Picrosirius red staining. Additionally, cardiac tissue functionality was evaluated by 2D echocardiograms at 8 and 30 weeks post-PRT. Results: Radiation damage was specifically localized in the heart’s apex. RNA profiling of cardiac tissues treated with PRT revealed that S-PRT induced unique pathways associated with DNA damage response, induction of tumor necrosis factor superfamily and inflammatory response, while F-PRT primarily affected cytoplasmic translation, mitochondrion organization and ATP synthesis. Notably, F-PRT led to a milder inflammatory response, accompanied by significantly attenuated changes in TGF-1 and SMA levels. Critically, F-PRT decreased collagen deposition, and better preserved cardiac functionality compared to S-PRT. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that F-PRT reduces the induction of an inflammatory environment with lower expression of inflammatory cytokines and profibrotic factors. Importantly, the results indicate that F-PRT better preserves cardiac functionality, as confirmed by echocardiography analysis, while also mitigating the development of long-term fibrosis.
2024-07-11 | GSE261367 | GEO
Project description:Long-term anti-tumor effects following both conventional radiotherapy and FLASH in fully immunocompetent animals with glioblastoma
| PRJEB52647 | ENA
Project description:The molecular and cellular mechanisms driving the enhanced therapeutic ratio of ultra-high dose-rate radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) over slower conventional (CONV) ionizing radiation (IR) dose-rate are not known. However, attenuated DNA damage and transient oxygen depletion are among a number of proposed models. Here, we tested whether FLASH-IR under physioxic (4% O2) and hypoxic conditions (≤2% O2) attenuates detection of genome-wide translocations relative to CONV dose rates and whether any differences identified revert under normoxic (21% O2) conditions. We employed high-throughput rejoin and genome-wide translocation sequencing (HTGTS-JoinT-seq), usingS. pyogenesandS. aureusCas9 “bait” DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), to measure differences in proximal deletions, inversions, and excision circles and their translocation to “prey” genome-wide DSBs generated by CONV (0.08-0.13Gy/s) and FLASH (1x102-5x106Gy/s) dose rates, under varying IR doses and oxygen tensions. Normoxic and physioxic IR exposure in HEK293T cells increased translocations at the cost of decreasing proximal repair but were indistinguishable between CONV and FLASH dose-rates. Although decreased numbers of translocations were recovered as cells transitioned to hypoxic (<2%) conditions, the combined decrease in oxygen tension with IR dose-rate modulation did not reveal significant differences in the level of translocations nor in junction structures, which, for proximal repair, were increased in direct and short microhomologies. We conclude that irrespective of oxygen tension, FLASH IR dose rates produce translocations and junction structures at levels that are indistinguishable from CONV dose rates.
2023-03-29 | GSE227466 | GEO
Project description:Flash-frozen prostate tumors collected from patients via radical prostatectomy were analyzed using single-cell ATAC-seq (sci-ATAC-seq). Unique cis- and trans-regulatory signatures between low- and high-grade localized prostate tumors are uncovered.
2021-11-04 | GSE171559 | GEO
Project description:We performed single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze murine lung tissues exposed to either conventional dose rate (CONV) or FLASH radiation therapy (FLASH-RT). This approach elucidated distinct early immune responses in radiation-induced lung injury and revealed protective mechanisms specific to FLASH irradiation. Systematic characterization of over 135,000 cells within the pulmonary microenvironment uncovered critical immune and stromal cell dynamics that differentiate CONV and FLASH-RT responses. These findings provide mechanistic insights into FLASH-RT's biological effects and its potential clinical applications in thoracic oncology.
2025-06-06 | GSE298566 | GEO
Project description:FLASH, a novel method, was utilized to identify binding sites of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) with single-nucleotide resolution (Nucleic Acids Res 2020;48:e15). In order to identify HuR target genes in THP-1 macrophages after circARCN1 regulation, we performed FLASH experiments using the anti-HuR antibody on THP-1 macrophages with circARCN1 knockdown or overexpression. The resulting FLASH products were then subjected to RNA sequencing.
2024-06-01 | GSE254370 | GEO