ENGENUR (Definition of new ENdpoints to assess and discriminate GENotoxic effects resulting from environmental exposures)

The bioaccumulation of radioactive substances is responsible for cellular and genetic damages that can seriously affect human health, as well as other organisms. Regarding uranium radiotoxic and chemotoxic properties, genotoxic responses seem to be a relevant endpoint, as uranium plays an importante role in the formation of oxidative DNA damages. In the project ENGENUR we investigated the correlation of the genotoxic effects on humans with those recorded on other animal species. We were able to use bioindicator species, to characterize human exposures and to predict genotoxic effects. The proposal focused on the following aspects: i) development and the validation of methodologies to assess genotoxic responses on different wildlife and domestic species, ii) development of new endpoints to be assessed in standard ecotoxicological assays, usually applied to assess risks to terrestrial communities, iii) validation of new bio-indicator wildlife and domestic species for exposures to metals, radioactive elements and radiation which, within a risk assessment scenario, helped predicting exposure and effects in humans, and iv) understanding the genotoxicity induced by metals/radionuclides and radiation, under environmental exposure, to analyze similarities with those already known for humans. We have employed techniques like the comet assay and flow cytometry to evaluate uranium/radionuclides genotoxicity. Expression of genes involved in the carcinogenesis process was performed by Real-time PCR, and mutation analyses were also performed on all the relevant exons of each gene. Furthermore, Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) was employed to study the different gene expression levels along early-developmental stages of two wildlife vertebrate species. 

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