The odds of mice surviving radiation sickness are improved by antibiotic treatment, and increased further by boosting an immune-system protein.
Eva Guinan of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and her colleagues exposed mice to 7 grays of radiation. This dose killed all but 5% of untreated mice within 30 days. Alone, upping levels of the protein BPI — which neutralizes certain bacterial toxins — had no measurable effect on mouse survival, whereas a regime of just fluoroquinolone antibiotics increased the survival rate to 40%. However, around 75% of mice given both antibiotics and a BPI boost survived, and these animals also recovered more bone-marrow cells than those given antibiotics alone.
Combination treatment helped mice that were treated up to 24 hours after radiation exposure; most existing treatments for radiation sickness must be taken before or within hours of exposure.
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Double radiation shield. Nature 480, 8 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/480008b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/480008b