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Updated: Jul 31, 2025

Lung CT Segmentation to Identify Consolidations and Ground Glass Areas for Quantitative Assesment of SARS-CoV Pneumonia
Published on: December 19, 2020
Deficient Radiation Transcription Response in COVID-19 Patients
Stanislav Polozov1, Lourdes Cruz-Garcia2, Grainne O'Brien3
1Science Limited, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
Purpose:
The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in over 6.3 million deaths and 560 million COVID-19 cases worldwide. Clinical management of hospitalized patients is complex due to the heterogeneous course of COVID-19. Low-dose radiation therapy is known to dampen localized chronic inflammation and has been suggested to be used to reduce lung inflammation in patients with COVID-19. However, it is unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 alters the radiation response and associated radiation exposure related risk.
Methods And Materials:
We generated gene expression profiles from circulating leukocytes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and healthy donors.
Results:
The p53 signaling pathway was found to be dysregulated, with mRNA levels of p53, ATM, and CHK2 being lower in patients with COVID-19. Several key p53 target genes involved in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and p53 feedback inhibition were upregulated in patients with COVID-19 while other p53 target genes were downregulated. This dysregulation has functional consequences as the transcription of p53-dependant genes (CCNG1, GADD45A, DDB2, SESN1, FDXR, APOBEC) was reduced 24 hours after x-ray exposure ex vivo to both low (100 mGy) or high (2 Gy) doses.
Conclusions:
SARS-CoV-2 infection affects a DNA damage response that may modify radiation-induced health risks in exposed patients with COVID-19.
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