PIKfyve Deficiency Exacerbates Radiation-Induced Intestinal Toxicity

Intestinal acute radiation syndrome (IARS) represents a life-threatening component of acute radiation syndrome with limited effective countermeasures. Understanding molecular determinants governing intestinal epithelial resilience to ionizing radiation is critical for developing radiation toxicity mitigation strategies.

This study investigates the role of PIKfyve, a phosphoinositide kinase essential for endolysosomal homeostasis, in modulating radiation-induced intestinal toxicity.

We utilized an inducible intestinal epithelial-specific PIKfyve-knockout mouse model (PIKfyve cKO) subjected to 10 Gy abdominal irradiation. Intestinal toxicity was assessed through histopathology, barrier permeability (FD4 assay), apoptosis markers, and transcriptomic profiling. Small intestinal organoids were employed for mechanistic validation.

PIKfyve deletion alone did not perturb normal gut architecture but precipitated severe post-irradiation toxicity, including villous atrophy, crypt hypoplasia, and massive crypt-cell apoptosis. Barrier dysfunction was evidenced by elevated serum FD4 and heightened systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines, culminating in markedly increased mortality. Transcriptomic analysis revealed potentiated DNA-damage signaling and amplified inflammatory cascades in PIKfyve-deficient intestines.

These findings identify PIKfyve as a critical guardian of intestinal epithelial integrity against radiation toxicity. Given emerging PIKfyve inhibitors in cancer therapy, our results raise important safety considerations for clinical radiotherapy and position PIKfyve as a potential target for radiation toxicity mitigation.