Radiotherapy is one of the most important options for treating breast cancer in humans. The development of biomarkers to monitor radiosensitivity is scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate the γH2AX levels in the human blood samples 0.5 h after radiotherapy compared to the levels before radiotherapy in breast cancer patients in relation to their respective body mass index (BMI). Blood plasma samples were collected from a total of 20 breast cancer patients before and after radiotherapy to measure γH2AX levels with an antibody against γH2AX based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. The median BMI of the patients was 30 kg/m². γH2AX was differentially expressed in breast cancer patients before radiotherapy. γH2AX levels significantly increased in 14 patients after radiotherapy (P = 0.006), whereas γH2AX levels decreased in three patients after radiotherapy, and three patients were excluded. There was no correlation between γH2AX values after radiotherapy and BMI (P = 0.5, r = 0.1). Our results suggest that γH2AX can be used by ELISA technique to measure γH2AX in the blood plasma of breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and can be considered a biomarker of radiosensitivity.

Evidence show that shortened telomere length (TL) and low Vitamin D levels can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its associated complications. T2DM has been considered as an age-related disease, it may be associated with TL. The study aimed to evaluate the association of TL and Vitamin D levels with complications of T2DM and the impact of Vitamin D on TL in patients with T2DM. This 1-year cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital on 90 patients. Height, weight, body mass index, waist-hip ratio was calculated. Fasting blood sugars, postprandial blood sugar, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were analyzed. Absolute TL was obtained from quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Vitamin D estimation was done by chemiluminescent immunoassay. Descriptive analysis of the data was done using R i386 3.6.3. The study found a positive correlation between TL and Vitamin D levels (r = 0.64; P < 0.0001). The interaction with high HbA1c levels and lower levels of Vitamin D led to the shortening of TL (P = 0.0001). The median of TL and mean of Vitamin D levels were significantly less in the diabetic group (P < 0.0001). Vitamin D levels positively affected the TL and its levels had an inverse relation with the HbA1c levels. This association had a significant effect on the shortening of TL. Vitamin D also had a significant association with other diabetic complications that instigated the shortening of TL. Therefore, assessing the role of Vitamin D levels on the shortening of TL can prove to be crucial biomarkers in managing optimal glycemic levels in T2DM patients.

Telomere length is regarded as a potential biomarker of biological ageing and is associated with various age-related diseases, such as ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease, and cancer. As there is a paucity of study that deals with this influence, this study aimed to assess how the cardiovascular risk factors influence the risk of IHD by performing mediation analysis. A total of 407 males were included in the study. IHD was diagnosed through echocardiography and coronary angiography by determining the number of coronary vessels involved. Demographic data, clinical history, and laboratory investigations such as random blood sugar (RBS), fasting lipid profile, serum creatinine, and serum urea levels of all the subjects were measured and recorded. Serum uric acid and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were significantly higher in IHD subjects compared to non-IHD subjects (P < 0.05). Body mass index (BMI), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), RBS, serum uric acid, serum creatinine, BUN, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and telomere length significantly differed between subjects with and without IHD (P < 0.05). Further, telomere length (P < 0.001), BMI (P < 0.001), and total cholesterol level (P < 0.001) were risk factors that significantly affected the incidence of IHD, as proved by logistic regression. It indicates that shorter telomeres contribute to increased risk of IHD, influenced by BMI, HbA1c, BUN, total cholesterol levels, and RBS (P < 0.001). The study established a link between telomere shortening, conventional risk factors, and IHD; moreover, the study takes care in the role of mediation analysis which is a novel idea as little is done in this area of biostatistics with telomere length. Overall, this further establishes that telomeres length might serve as the promising biomarkers in predicting the risk of IHD.

Chromosome fragile sites tend to form gap or break in chromosomes following when the cell exposed to replication stress. Folic acid deprivation in the culture medium induces folate-sensitive rare fragile sites, such as FRAXA which is responsible for the fragile X mental retardation syndrome. Chromosome instability at fragile sites can be evaluated by biomarkers of genomic instability such as frequency of micronuclei (MN). It was aimed to analyse the chromosome content of MN in Fragile X cells during folate deprivation by the MN-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method. Samples from five Fragile X syndrome patients, diagnosed using cytogenetic and molecular methods, as well as from their parents and five controls were included in the study. Blood samples were cultured in two different culture media (folate-deficient and normal). Results of MN-FISH test were analysed in terms of MN frequency and chromosome content of MN. An accumulation of MN in Fragile X patients, mainly containing T (+) or C (+) MN or T (+) plus C (+) MN in binucleated cells was found. Finally, MN-FISH analysis allowed confirming that the increase in MN frequency is due to a higher sensitivity to chromosome breakage along the X chromosome.

Chromosome aberration is a biomarker that has been used as a standard tool in biological dosimetry (biodosimetry) of individuals after exposure to ionizing radiation. It is based mainly on the induction of dicentric chromosomes – one of the radiation-induced biological effects, in order to correlate them with radiation dose. In this study, a dose calibration curve for X-rays was generated by using the dicentric assay and by fitting the data to both Chromosomal Aberration Calculation Software and Dose Estimate programs to compare the output of each method. Peripheral blood samples from four nonsmoker healthy donors were irradiated with various doses ranging from 0 to 4 Gy with 250 kV or 122 keV X-rays at a dose rate of 0.17 Gy/min. The irradiated blood was cultured, harvested, and analyzed according to the standard procedure as described by the International Atomic Energy Agency with slight modifications. The dose-response calibration data for dicentrics were fitted with the linear-quadratic model (Ydic = 0.03987D2 + 0.00651D). The dose-response calibration curve obtained in this research was comparable to other estimations with similar radiation quality and dose rates. The results in this research convinced us in sustaining a biodosimetry using a dose-response calibration curve in our laboratory.