Abstract
PURPOSE: Biomarkers serve a number of purposes during drug development including defining the natural history of injury/disease, serving as a secondary endpoint or trigger for intervention, and/or aiding in the selection of an effective dose in humans. BIO 300 is a patent-protected pharmaceutical formulation of nanoparticles of synthetic genistein being developed by Humanetics Corporation. The primary goal of this metabolomic discovery experiment was to identify biomarkers that correlate with radiation-induced lung injury and BIO 300 efficacy for mitigating tissue damage based upon the primary endpoint of survival. METHODS: High-throughput targeted metabolomics of lung tissue from male C57L/J mice exposed to 12.5 Gy whole thorax lung irradiation, treated daily with 400 mg/kg BIO 300 for either 2 weeks or 6 weeks starting 24 h post radiation exposure, were assayed at 180 d post-radiation to identify potential biomarkers. RESULTS: A panel of lung metabolites that are responsive to radiation and able to distinguish an efficacious treatment schedule of BIO 300 from a non-efficacious treatment schedule in terms of 180 d survival were identified. CONCLUSIONS: These metabolites represent potential biomarkers that could be further validated for use in drug development of BIO 300 and in the translation of dose from animal to human.