Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a very prominent environmental toxic agent. UVR has been implicated in the initiation and progression of photocarcinogenesis. UVR exposure elicits numerous cellular and molecular events which include the generation of inflammatory mediators, DNA damage, epigenetic modifications, and oxidative damages mediated activation of signaling pathways. UVR-initiated signal transduction pathways are believed to be responsible for tumor promotion effects. UVR-induced carcinogenic mechanism has been well studied using various animal and cellular models. Human skin-derived dermal fibroblasts, epidermal keratinocytes, and melanocytes served as excellent cellular model systems for the understanding of UVR-mediated carcinogenic events. Apart from this, scientists developed reconstituted three-dimensional normal human skin equivalent models for the study of UVR signaling pathways. Moreover, hairless mice such as SKH-1, devoid of Hr gene, served as a valuable model for experimental carcinogenesis. Scientists have also used transgenic mice and dorsal portion shaved Swiss albino mice for UVR carcinogenesis studies. In this review, we have discussed the current progress in the study on ultraviolet B (UVB)-mediated carcinogenesis and outlined appropriate experimental models for both ultraviolet A- and UVB-mediated carcinogenesis.

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Exposure of cells to ionizing radiation causes generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) which are implicated in the mechanism of carcinogenesis. Molecular steps involved in the transformation of normal cells to cancer cells have been enigmatic but generally believed to arise from aberration in cellular redox homeostasis. In normal cell function, a delicate balance is maintained between ROS generated in the metabolic process and level of endogenous antioxidant defense. ROS are known to regulate various cellular functions, such as cell division, signal transduction, and apoptosis. Cells experience oxidative stress when excess production of ROS occurs inside a cell upon exposure to external stressor agents. This redox imbalance affects the cellular functions due to DNA strand breaks, chromosomal aberrations, gene mutations, alteration in signal transduction, and inhibition of apoptosis leading to induction of cancer and other diseases. Radiation-induced ROS are involved in initiation and promotion of carcinogenesis. Therefore, detoxification of ROS by exogenous antioxidants including dietary polyphenols offers an important strategy for cancer prevention. Recent research results have shown that resistance of cancer stem cells to therapies is linked to low level of ROS. Interestingly, in vitro and in vivo experiments have reported that radiotherapy- and chemotherapy-induced ROS in cytosol sensitize the tumor cells to death, resulting in tumor growth retardation. This review is an attempt to delineate mechanisms of ROS in carcinogenesis and prevention by dietary compounds. Natural polyphenols and dietary antioxidants hold potential to prevent cancer. Interventions in ROS-mediated signal alteration, apoptosis activation, and modulation of epigenetic processes may offer effective cancer prevention strategy.

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Tobacco habit is one of the main etiological factors responsible for cancer in body's multiple organs due to the presence of numerous carcinogens. In different animal models, it was evident that the carcinogens could induce carcinogenesis in multiple organs depending on its route of exposure site (e.g., skin, oral cavity, and lung), metabolism (e.g., liver and lung), and excretion (e.g., lung and kidney). It was evident that the active carcinogen metabolites could induce cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, bind to DNA/RNA/proteins, thereby transforming the stem cell of the specific organs toward neoplasm. Different epidemiological studies including our own showed few natural compounds might reduce the risk of tobacco-induced carcinogenesis. The anticarcinogenic roles of crude extract as well as active compounds of such natural dietary ingredients were also evaluated by several in vivo animal models. Most of the active components have potential antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anticarcinogenic roles. For better understanding, the roles of three different types of compounds were selected for this review 1. Tea polyphenols from Camellia sinensis: epigallocatechin gallate and theaflavin; 2. amarogentin from Swertia chirata; and 3. Eugenol from Syzygium aromaticum. Studies showed that three types of compounds could restrict the carcinogenesis in different organs at premalignant stages. This might be due to antioxidation and activation of detoxification system, inhibition of cancer initiating stem cell population, modulation of multiple cellular pathways associated with cell cycle, cell proliferation, and survival which ultimately lead to restrict tumor development at initiation/promotion stage.

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Histone variant, H3.3 has been a continuous subject of interest in the field of chromatin studies due to its two distinguishing features. First, its incorporation into chromatin is replication-independent, unlike the replication-coupled deposition of its canonical counterparts H3.1/3.2. Second, H3.3 has been consistently associated with an active state of chromatin. Apart from this function research in the past few years has also revealed that H3.3 has a central role to play in maintaining the somatic cell identity, for efficient ultraviolet induce DNA damage repair and proper segregation of chromosomes during cell division. Further, the discovery of “driver mutations” on this variant has bought it to limelight in cancer biology to the extent that “oncohistone,” a new term has been coined for different mutants of H3.3. Here, we review the functional importance of H3.3 in the context of cancer.

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Radiation carcinogenesis may be associated with external and/or internal sources of radiation exposure during accidental, occupational, or diagnostic/therapeutic conditions. Most of the radiation carcinogenic events are established after acute doses of low linear energy transfer external radiation. Moreover, the carcinogenic effects of internalized radioisotopes are also reported at their acute/chronic doses. In this regard, actinide radionuclides (like 238U, 239Pu, 232Th, and 241Am) are of great importance as fuel material or waste generated during nuclear power production. These radionuclides may result in incidence of cancer when internalized at high doses while accidental or occupation exposure. Even though the basic carcinogenic mechanism after external or internal radiation exposure remains the same, the magnitude of systemic or target specific radiation effects may vary in these radiation exposure conditions. The majority of the studies investigating biological, carcinogenic, and other health effects of actinide radionuclides are limited only up to quantification of these effects without much mechanistic insights. Moreover, the radiobiological processes, such as bystander effect, genomic instability, and adaptive response, governing the cellular radiosensitivity of targeted/nontargeted cells also need to be studied in the context of carcinogenesis after actinide radionuclides internalization. The review aims to highlight the emerging radiobiological concepts and missing links about actinide radionuclides-induced carcinogenesis. In addition, an overview has been presented about biological and health effects of major actinide radionuclides.

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The comet assay (also known as single-cell gel electrophoresis) is a technique for the detection of DNA damage at the level of the individual cell. It is a versatile, relatively simple to perform and sensitive method. Although most investigations make use of its ability to measure DNA single-strand breaks, modifications to the method allow detection of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs), crosslinks, base damage, and apoptotic nuclei. Many investigators also interested in examining the DNA damage as a function of time after exposure to a known genotoxic agent. Here, we present a procedure of comet assay for the detection of DNA strand breaks, base damages, and CPDs that can be used to measure DNA damage during toxicity, oxidative stress, and ultraviolet radiation exposure and it can be applied in human toxicological biomonitoring scenarios.

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Deviation from the orchestra of regulated cell division into unregulated and then result into the formation of tumor is known as carcinogenesis. While causes and hallmarks of many cancer types are well established, newer concepts on tumor cell response to treatment, challenges established therapeutic regime and drives into alternative toward the better management. The phenomena of therapeutics induced bystander response, and genomic instability on late effects of cancer therapy is emerging as a newer challenge. Bystander response is defined as the manifestation of radiation/chemotherapy drug signatures on the unexposed cells which are in the closer vicinity of the directly exposed; on the other hand, genomic instability is defined as the expression of radiation/chemotherapy drug signatures in the progeny of exposed cells. Unequivocally, existence of those phenomena has been demonstrated with many cell types (both in vitro and in vivo) followed by radiation and widely used chemotherapeutic drugs. Nevertheless, it is also revealed that the effects are variable and depend on dose, type of radiation/chemicals agents, experimental model, type of donor and recipient cells, and biomarkers adopted; moreover, to observe those effects, reactive oxygen species has been reported as leading mediators of those responses when compared to other molecules such as interleukins, cytokines, and inflammatory markers. Available data on those phenomena and our findings suggest that a role of therapeutic drugs induced bystander effects, and genomic instability on the development of secondary malignancy cannot be ruled out completely.

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Uptake transporters are being studied for roles in the entry of therapeutic drugs into cells and thus can be exploited to improve the treatment of various diseases. The live whole model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, offers an array of advantages to investigate the roles of these transporters. This organism possesses two organic cation transporters (OCTs), OCT1 and OCT2 that are involved in the uptake of clinically relevant genotoxic anticancer drugs such as doxorubicin and cisplatin into the animal. C. elegans lacking OCT1 displays a shortened lifespan, a decreased brood size, an increased susceptibility to oxidative stress, and certain DNA damaging agents. Remarkably, these phenotypes can be rescued by downregulating the OCT1 paralog, OCT2, leading to the suggestion that OCT1 exerts control on OCT2. Indeed, the loss of OCT1 led to the upregulation of OCT2. OCT2 is an uptake transporter involved in the influx of doxorubicin, as well as a number of other therapeutic agents and chemical compounds, some of which have been identified through ligand-protein docking analyses. The genotoxic compounds entering into C. elegans lead to DNA damage-induced apoptosis of germ cells, a process that can be attenuated by blocking OCT2 function. Thus, by combining the roles of the OCT1 and OCT2 transporters with defects in various DNA repair mechanisms, it is possible to engineer a set of supersensitive C. elegans strains that can serve as the most powerful living sensors to date. These tester C. elegans strains can be used to report on the cytotoxicities and genotoxicities of a battery of old and new drugs developed by pharmaceuticals, undocumented toxicants generated by various industries, and compounds that can cause cancers and are present in trace amounts in the environment around the world. These efforts are attainable as C. elegans can live in the soil and water, and a multitude of tools are available to monitor several readouts from the animals.

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Radiotherapy (RT) can be used in the treatment of cancers, instead of surgery to achieve better functional results by using external beam RT and brachytherapy. Elevation of radiation response in tumor cells and reduction of sensitivity to radiation in adjacent normal tissues are the core issues in the radiotherapeutic field of tumor. Radiogenomics addresses possible associations between germline genetic variation and normal tissue toxicity after RT. The objective of radiation genomics is to identify the genetic markers for personalized RT, in which cancer management is formulated so that the treatment plan will be optimized for each patient based on their genetic background. Combinatorial approaches to radiation-induced gene expression study and genome-wide SNP genotype study may discover candidate biomarkers for personalization of RT treatment and identify genetic alterations that affect risk of normal tissue toxicity.

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