Radioprotective effects of thiamine disulfide and its reaction mechanisms

The radioprotective effects of thiamine disulfide and its reaction mechanisms have been studied. The results show that thiamine disulfide protects mouse marrow colony forming unit-granulocyte/macrophages (CFU-GM) and other hematopoietic tissues (spleen weight, CFUs, bone marrow DNA) from radiation injury, and increases the 30-day survival of lethally irradiated mice by 65% over the controls, its dose reduction factor (DRF) being 1.20. Its effective dose range is from 1.0 mg/mouse to 30.0 mg/mouse and it's effective treatment time lasts from 3 h before irradiation to 6h after irradiation. Therefore, thiamine disulfide is not only a prophylactic, but also a therapeutic drug for radiation injury. Using electron-spin resonance (ESR) technique and chemiluminescence analysis, the radioprotective mechanisms of thiamine disulfide have been studied. The results show that it can scavenge OH, and shows a protection rate of 13.6% in the tryptophan solution irradiated in vitro. By ESR technique it can reveal that the uncoupled electrons induced by irradiation migrate from DNA to S-atom of the thiamine disulfide; so it protects the structure and function of DNA from radiation injury. It significantly reduces the liver free radical concentration of irradiated mice, and accelerates the recovery of the concentration to normal level