Biodosimetry in Radiation Emergency

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has joined the Atoms for Peace initiative to benefit from the tremendous beneficial nuclear applications in medicine, energy, agriculture and industry. Such an expansion of nuclear applications in the region may collaterally increase instances of environmental health concerns where individuals or group of people will accidentally be subjected to radiation, which may lead to a spectrum of acute and chronic health effects and potential cancer formation, by triggering biological mechanisms of accelerated aging in exposed tissues. Radiation incidents may also happen due to acts of terrorism which could have huge implications and may require extensive medical resources and adequate health care facilities.

Directives of radiation protection recommend that each country establishes emergency response capability to provide rapid diagnostic tools to direct the medical management of overexposed individuals. The effective medical management of radiological accidents necessitates recording dynamic medical data, physical measurement of radioactivity, and appropriate radiation bioassays able to accurately estimate doses received in order for treating physicians to appropriately treat victims.

Therefore, in line with many nations in developed countries, we have recently established a national biodosimetry laboratory based on the "gold standard" cytogenetic dicentric chromosomal assay (DCA) as recommended by the IAEA Technical Reports No. 405, 2001 and EPR-Biodosimetry 2011.

In this project we propose to sustain the activities of our biodosimetry laboratory and expand its technical capabilities by establishing two other assays, the IAEA-recommended cytochalacin-block micronuclei (CBMN) and the emerging gamma-H2AX biotechnology-based assays.

The aim is to assess health consequences of environmental exposure to radiological and nuclear accidents in Saudi Arabia by providing rapid diagnostic techniques for triage and medical management purposes as part of a national emergency response plan to enhance the Nation's casualty management capabilities.

This applied research project relates intimately to "The National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan" under “Medical and Health Strategic Priorities”, by using medical applications of biotechnology to indigenize CBMN and gamma-H2AX assays. This will enable the establishment of a fully-fledged national biodosimetry laboratory that can cooperate with IAEA and WHO and collaborate more efficiently with an international biodosimetry network. The various activities of the reference biodosimetry laboratory will add evidence-based information for public health officials and decision-makers who assess the extent and magnitude of medical, occupational and accidental radiation exposures in addition to providing a platform for advanced education, research and development.