Publications by authors named "Foray N"

Article Synopsis
  • * These mutations lead to defective fibrillin, which compromises connective tissues and alters TGF-β expression, increasing the risk of vascular issues and sensitivity to radiation-induced damage.
  • * The study investigated the radiation response of fibroblasts from MFS patients, finding that these cells exhibit moderate radiosensitivity and impaired DNA repair mechanisms, linked to the impaired movement of ATM protein due to mutated fibrillin and elevated TGF-β levels.
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Radiation impacting astronauts in their spacecraft come from a "bath" of high-energy rays (0.1-0.5 mGy per mission day) that reaches deep tissues like the heart and bones and a "stochastic rain" of low-energy particles from the shielding and impacting surface tissues like skin and lenses.

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Purpose: Fibrosis is a common late complication of radiation therapy. Molecular dysregulations leading to fibrosis have been characterized for the coding part of the genome, notably those involving the TGFB1 gene network. However, because a large part of the human genome encodes RNA transcripts that are not translated into proteins, exploring the involvement of the noncoding part of the genome in fibrosis susceptibility and development was the aim of this work.

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Unlabelled: Although carcinogenesis is a multi-factorial process, the mutability and the capacity of cells to proliferate are among the major features of the cells that contribute together to the initiation and promotion steps of cancer formation. Particularly, mutability can be quantified by hyper-recombination rate assessed with specific plasmid assay, hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) mutations frequency rate, or MRE11 nuclease activities. Cell proliferation can be assessed by flow cytometry by quantifying G2/M, G1 arrests, or global cellular evasion.

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Purpose: Since 2004, in the frame of the care pathway, our Research Unit has replied to the demand of expertise of radiation oncologists about the individual radiosensitivity of some of their patients. This procedure, called COPERNIC, is based on a skin biopsy and the radiation-induced nucleoshuttling of the ATM protein (the RIANS model), a major actor of DNA break repair and signaling. In 2016, with the first 117COPERNIC fibroblast lines, we obtained a significant correlation between the maximum number of the nuclear ATM foci, pATM, and the CTCAE severity grade of the post-radiotherapy tissue reactions.

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Article Synopsis
  • Immunofluorescence using antibodies against γH2AX is enhancing our understanding of how cells repair DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) but is influenced by factors like stress type, radiation dose, and chromatin structure.
  • This study investigates how changes in chromatin conformation affect the pattern and intensity of γH2AX foci and shows that chromosome decondensation significantly alters the γH2AX signal observed.
  • The researchers introduce a "Christmas light model" to explain the variability in γH2AX focus patterns, suggesting this can apply to other DNA damage markers as well.
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Pulmonary cryptococcosis is becoming increasingly common in immunocompetent hosts, manifesting with variable clinical presentations ranging from asymptomatic colonization to severe pneumonia. Radiological findings are non-specific, such as nodular infiltrates, mass-like lesions, and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. We present a case of a 61-year-old woman with pneumonia coinfected with , an unusual occurrence in an immunocompetent host and the first of its kind.

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While cancer is one of the most documented diseases, how normal cells become cancerous is still debated. To address this question, in the first part of this review, we investigated the long succession of theories of carcinogenesis since antiquity. Initiated by Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, the humoral theory interpreted cancer as an excess of acid, the black bile.

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Radiobiological data, whether obtained at the clinical, biological or molecular level has significantly contributed to a better description and prediction of the individual dose-response to ionizing radiation and a better estimation of the radiation-induced risks. Particularly, over the last seventy years, the amount of radiobiological data has considerably increased, and permitted the mathematical formulas describing dose-response to become less empirical. A better understanding of the basic radiobiological mechanisms has also contributed to establish quantitative inter-correlations between clinical, biological and molecular biomarkers, refining again the mathematical models of description.

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Introduction: Residential exposure is estimated to be responsible for nearly 10% of lung cancers in 2015 in France, making it the second leading cause, after tobacco. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in the southwest of France, is particularly affected by this exposure as 30% of the population lives in areas with medium or high radon potential. This study aimed to investigate the impact of radon exposure on the survival of lung cancer patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Menkes' disease and Wilson's disease are genetic disorders related to copper metabolism caused by mutations in specific genes, and cells from these diseases show a response to DNA damage that hasn't been thoroughly explored yet.
  • In experiments with skin fibroblast lines from both diseases, cells exhibited moderate sensitivity to radiation, with delays in key processes that recognize and repair DNA damage, attributed to interactions of a copper-related protein with crucial repair proteins.
  • The study suggests that ionizing radiation might worsen the clinical aspects of Menkes' and Wilson's diseases, highlighting the need for caution when these patients undergo radiation-related medical procedures.
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Studies about radiation-induced human cataractogenesis are generally limited by (1) the poor number of epithelial lens cell lines available (likely because of the difficulties of cell sampling and amplification) and (2) the lack of reliable biomarkers of the radiation-induced aging process. We have developed a mechanistic model of the individual response to radiation based on the nucleoshuttling of the ATM protein (RIANS). Recently, in the frame of the RIANS model, we have shown that, to respond to permanent endo- and exogenous stress, the ATM protein progressively agglutinates around the nucleus attracted by overexpressed perinuclear ATM-substrate protein.

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Article Synopsis
  • Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) allows for high doses of radiation to be delivered in fewer sessions, potentially aided by biological mechanisms such as the hypersensitivity to low dose (HRS) phenomenon.
  • Research shows that when HRS-positive tumor cells are exposed to SBRT, they experience more severe DNA damage compared to HRS-negative cells, indicating that HRS can enhance the effectiveness of radiation therapy.
  • The findings suggest that SBRT's approach of using minibeams for dose delivery could lead to better outcomes in HRS-positive tumors, and may also influence the risk of tissue overreactions after radiation treatment.
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Dose - volume histograms have been historically used to study the relationship between the planned radiation dose and healthy tissue damage. However, this approach considers neither spatial information nor heterogenous radiosensitivity within organs at risk, depending on the tissue. Recently, voxel-wise analyses have emerged in the literature as powerful tools to fully exploit three-dimensional information from the planned dose distribution.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative dementia, for which the molecular origins, genetic predisposition and therapeutic approach are still debated. In the 1980s, cells from AD patients were reported to be sensitive to ionizing radiation. In order to examine the molecular basis of this radiosensitivity, the ATM-dependent DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) signaling and repair were investigated by applying an approach based on the radiation-induced ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) protein nucleoshuttling (RIANS) model.

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Radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBE) describe the biological events occurring in non-targeted cells in the vicinity of irradiated ones. Various experimental procedures have been used to investigate RIBE. Interestingly, most micro-irradiation experiments have been performed with alpha particles, whereas most medium transfers have been done with X-rays.

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The radiation protection strategy with chemical agents has long been based on an antioxidative approach consisting in reducing the number of radical oxygen and nitrogen species responsible for the formation of the radiation-induced (RI) DNA damage, notably the DNA double-strand breaks (DSB), whose subset participates in the RI lethal effect as unrepairable damage. Conversely, a DSB repair-stimulating strategy that may be called the "pro-episkevic" approach (from the ancient Greek , meaning repair) can be proposed. The pro-episkevic approach directly derives from a mechanistic model based on the RI nucleoshuttling of the ATM protein (RIANS) and contributes to increase the number of DSB managed by NHEJ, the most predominant DSB repair and signaling pathway in mammalians.

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Purpose: We assessed low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening for lung cancer using a proactive patient education/recruitment program.

Methods: We identified patients aged 55-80 years from a family medicine group. In the retrospective phase (March-August, 2019), patients were categorized as current/former/never smokers, and screening eligibility was determined.

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Very early after their discovery, X-rays were used in multiple medical applications, such as treatments against cancer, inflammation and pain. Because of technological constraints, such applications involved X-ray doses lower than 1 Gy per session. Progressively, notably in oncology, the dose per session increased.

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Article Synopsis
  • There are genetic syndromes that are linked to high cancer risk and radiosensitivity, but the connection between them is still unclear.
  • Some cancer syndromes arise from mutations in genes related to DNA damage repair and cell cycle control, raising questions about how these mutations lead to cancer.
  • The RIANS model suggests that proteins, particularly ATM kinase substrates, may connect cancer susceptibility and sensitivity to radiation by performing various biological roles, especially when mutated.
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Tissue overreactions (OR), whether called adverse effects, radiotoxicity, or radiosensitivity reactions, may occur during or after anti-cancer radiotherapy (RT). They represent a medical, economic, and societal issue and raise the question of individual response to radiation. To predict and prevent them are among the major tasks of radiobiologists.

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Objective: Radiotherapy (RT) against head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) may lead to severe toxicity in 30-40% of patients. The normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models, based on dosimetric data refined the normal tissue dose/volume tolerance guidelines. In parallel, the radiation-induced nucleoshuttling (RIANS) of the Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated protein (pATM) is a predictive approach of individual intrinsic radiosensitivity.

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Background: While computed tomography (CT) exams are the major cause of medical exposure to ionising radiation, the radiation-induced risks must be documented. We investigated the impact of the cellular models and individual factor on the deoxyribonucleic acid double-strand breaks (DSB) recognition and repair in human skin fibroblasts and brain astrocytes exposed to current head CT scan conditions.

Method: Nine human primary fibroblasts and four human astrocyte cell lines with different levels of radiosensitivity/susceptibility were exposed to a standard head CT scan exam using adapted phantoms.

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Background: While computed tomography (CT) exams are the major cause of medical exposure to ionising radiation, there is increasing evidence that the potential radiation-induced risks must be documented. We investigated the impact of cellular models and individual factor on the deoxyribonucleic acid double-strand breaks (DSB) recognition and repair in human fibroblasts and mammary epithelial cells exposed to current chest CT scan conditions.

Method: Twelve human primary fibroblasts and four primary human mammary epithelial cell lines with different levels of radiosensitivity/susceptibility were exposed to a standard chest CT scan exam using adapted phantoms.

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A mechanistic model from radiobiology has emerged by pointing out that the radiation-induced nucleo-shuttling of the ATM protein (RIANS) initiates the recognition, the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB), and the final response to genotoxic stress. More recently, we provided evidence in this journal that the RIANS model is also relevant for exposure to metal ions. To document the role of the ATM-dependent DSB repair and signaling after pesticide exposure, we applied six current pesticides of domestic and environmental interest (lindane, atrazine, glyphosate, permethrin, pentachlorophenol and thiabendazole) to human skin fibroblast and brain cells.

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