Dunlap Neal E, van Berkel Victor, Cai Lu
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, 40202, USA.
Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, 40202, USA.
Radiat Med Prot. 2021 Dec;2(4):139-145. doi: 10.1016/j.radmp.2021.09.004. Epub 2021 Sep 10.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative pathogen of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has caused more than 179 million infections and 3.8 million deaths worldwide. Global health authorities working on the COVID-19 outbreak continue to explore methods to reduce the rate of its transmission to healthy individuals. Treatment protocols thus far have focused on social distancing and masking, treatment with antivirals early in infection, and steroids to reduce the inflammatory response. An alternative approach is therapy with low dose radiation (LDR), which has several advantages compared to the current drugs and medicines. To date more than 10 case reports and pilot clinical trial preliminary outcome are available from different countries. These reports cover a wide range of patient conditions and LDR treatment strategies. Although one report showed the failure to observe the improvement of COVID-19 patients after LDR therapy, the majority showed some clinical improvement, and demonstrated the safety of LDR for COVID-19 patients, particularly with 0.5 Gy. This review aims to summarize the potential rationales and mechanisms of LDR therapy for COVID-19 patients, and its current clinical status and potential use.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）是2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的致病病原体，已在全球造成超过1.79亿人感染和380万人死亡。致力于应对COVID-19疫情的全球卫生当局继续探索降低其传播给健康个体的速率的方法。迄今为止，治疗方案主要集中在保持社交距离和佩戴口罩、在感染早期使用抗病毒药物治疗以及使用类固醇来减轻炎症反应。一种替代方法是低剂量辐射（LDR）疗法，与目前的药物相比，它具有几个优点。迄今为止，不同国家已有10多篇病例报告和初步的临床试验结果。这些报告涵盖了广泛的患者情况和LDR治疗策略。虽然有一份报告显示LDR治疗后未观察到COVID-19患者病情改善，但大多数报告显示有一定临床改善，并证明了LDR对COVID-19患者的安全性，尤其是0.5 Gy剂量时。本综述旨在总结LDR治疗COVID-19患者潜在的理论依据和机制，以及其目前的临床状况和潜在用途。
