UC San Diego

Radiation poisoning has become an increasingly larger public health concern in modern society with the proliferation of nuclear technology. No effective treatment for radiation poisoning exists. Radiation is believed to cause damage to cells through a process known as radiolysis, which generates reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cobinamide, a vitamin B12 precursor, has been shown to be an effective scavenger of ROS. Due to cobinaimide’s ability to scavenge ROS, we hypothesized that cobinamide could be utilized as a potential therapeutic for radiation sickness. We first tested the hypothesis by assessing cobinamide’s ability to react with ROS. We found that cobinamide is reduced in the presence of superoxide and may also be acting as a superoxide dismutase mimetic. Further experiments were performed to determine if cobinamide could recue cells from radiation-induced cell death. Experiments with HEK293A cells showed that cobinamide partially rescued cells from radiation-induced cell death in both, a radioprotective and radiomitigative manner. Results suggest that cobinamide can be developed as an effective radiation poisoning therapeutic. Overall, these findings suggest the potential usage of cobinamide as a therapeutic for radiation exposure in the clinical setting.