PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Radioprotection: Mechanisms, Interventions, and Therapeutic StrategiesView all articles
Radioprotection Redefined: Drug Discovery at the Intersection of Tardigrade Biology and Translational Pharmacology
Provisionally accepted
- 1The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
- 2Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun, China
- 3University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
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Ionizing radiation inflicts lethal double-strand DNA breaks and oxidative stress that underlie acute radiation syndrome, secondary malignancies, and dose-limiting toxicity in radiotherapy; yet the conventional armamentarium of radioprotectants— aminothiols, broad-spectrum antioxidants, cytokines, and superoxide-dismutase mimetics—yields only modest benefit because of narrow therapeutic windows, systemic toxicity, and inadequate protection of radiosensitive tissues. In striking contrast, tardigrades (phylum Tardigrada) routinely endure exposures beyond 5 kGy by deploying a multifaceted defense repertoire that includes genome-shielding proteins such as damage suppressor (Dsup) and Tardigrade DNA-Repair protein 1 (TDR1), families of intrinsically disordered proteins that vitrify cytoplasm and scavenge radicals, antioxidant pigments acquired via horizontal gene transfer, and exceptionally efficient DNA-repair and redox networks. Viewing radioprotection through a translational pharmacology lens reveals a pipeline of emerging modalities— including recombinant or cell-penetrating proteins, mRNA therapeutics, peptidomimetics, and biomimetic nanomaterials—while also spotlighting critical hurdles of scalable bioprocessing, macromolecule stability, immunogenicity, and targeted delivery. By integrating insights from extremophile biology with cutting-edge drug-discovery platforms, tardigrade-inspired interventions promise to safeguard healthy tissue during cancer treatment, reduce casualties in nuclear accidents, and shield astronauts on deep-space missions, thereby redefining the future landscape of radioprotection and transforming an evolutionary curiosity into a potent arsenal of medical countermeasures.
Keywords: Tardigrada, extremotolerance, Ionizing radiation, radioprotection, space medicine, Drug Development
Received: 26 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Lin, Zhao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Huiying Zhao, hui_ying@jlu.edu.cn
Xiaohui Wang, xiaohui.wang@ciac.ac.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.