Yu Jihang, Khan Md Gulam Musawwir, Mayassi Nada, Kaushal Bhuvnesh, Wang Yi
Radiobiology and Health, Isotopes, Radiobiology & Environment Directorate (IRED), Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON K0J 1J0, Canada.
Department of Chemistry and Biology, Faculty of Science, Toronto Metropolitan University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada.
Cancers (Basel). 2025 May 28;17(11):1801. doi: 10.3390/cancers17111801.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been well applied to assess genetic abnormalities in various biological samples to investigate disease mechanisms. With the advent of high-throughput and automatic testing platforms, NGS can identify radiation-sensitive and dose-responsive biomarkers, contributing to triage patients and determining risk groups for treatment in a nuclear emergency. While bulk NGS provides a snapshot of the average gene expression or genomic changes within a group of cells after the radiation, it cannot provide information on individual cells within the population. On the other hand, single-cell sequencing involves isolating individual cells and sequencing the genetic material from each cell separately. This approach allows for the identification of gene expression and genomic changes in individual cells, providing a high-resolution view of cellular diversity and heterogeneity within a sample. Single-cell sequencing is particularly useful to identify cell-specific features of dose-response and organ-response genes. While single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology is still emerging in radiation research, it holds significant promise for identifying biomarkers related to radiation exposure and tailoring post-radiation medical care. This review aims to focus on current methods of radiation dosimetry and recently identified biomarkers associated with radiation exposure. Additionally, it addresses the development of NGS techniques in the context of radiation situations, such as cancer treatment and emergency events, with a particular emphasis on single-cell sequencing technology.
下一代测序（NGS）已被广泛应用于评估各种生物样本中的基因异常，以研究疾病机制。随着高通量和自动化检测平台的出现，NGS能够识别辐射敏感和剂量反应性生物标志物，有助于对患者进行分类，并确定核应急情况下的治疗风险组。虽然批量NGS提供了辐射后一组细胞内平均基因表达或基因组变化的概况，但它无法提供群体中单个细胞的信息。另一方面，单细胞测序涉及分离单个细胞，并分别对每个细胞的遗传物质进行测序。这种方法能够识别单个细胞中的基因表达和基因组变化，提供样本内细胞多样性和异质性的高分辨率视图。单细胞测序对于识别剂量反应和器官反应基因的细胞特异性特征特别有用。虽然单细胞RNA测序（scRNA-seq）技术在辐射研究中仍处于起步阶段，但它在识别与辐射暴露相关的生物标志物以及定制辐射后医疗护理方面具有巨大潜力。本综述旨在关注当前的辐射剂量测定方法以及最近发现的与辐射暴露相关的生物标志物。此外，它还探讨了在癌症治疗和紧急事件等辐射情况下NGS技术的发展，特别强调了单细胞测序技术。
