Protection against X-ray radiation-induced cellular damage of human peripheral blood lymphocytes by an aminothiazole derivative of dendrodoine

The present study was aimed to evaluate the radioprotective efficacy of dendrodoine analog (DA), an aminothiazole derivative against X-ray radiation-induced cellular damage in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Different concentrations of DA (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 μg/ml or 6.15, 12.29, 18.44, 24.59, 30.73 μM) were pre-incubated with lymphocytes for 30 min prior to irradiation [4 Gy] and the micronuclei (MN) scoring and comet assay were performed to fix the effective concentration of DA against 4 Gy irradiation-induced cellular damage. The results indicated that among all the concentrations, 6 μg/ml concentration of DA showed optimum protection by effectively decreasing the MN frequencies and comet attributes. Based on the above results, 6 μg/ml concentration of DA was fixed as the effective dose to further investigate its radioprotective efficacy. This was carried out by pre-incubating the lymphocytes with 6 μg/ml concentration of DA followed by exposure of the lymphocytes to different doses (1, 2, 3 and 4 Gy) of radiation and investigating the radiation-induced genetic damage (MN, comet assay, DNA fragmentation assay) and biochemical changes (changes in the level of enzymic and non-enzymic antioxidants, lipid peroxidation). The results indicated a dose-dependent increase in both genetic damage and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), accompanied by a significant decrease in the antioxidant status in the irradiated groups compared to DA treated groups which modulated the toxic effects through its antioxidant potential. Thus the current study shows DA to be an effective radioprotector against X-ray radiation induced in vitro cellular damage in lymphocytes.