Analysis of the Proteomic Profile in Serum of Irradiated Nonhuman Primates Treated with Ex-Rad, a Radiation Medical Countermeasure

There are currently four radiation medical countermeasures that have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to mitigate hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome, all of which are repurposed radiomitigators. The evaluation of additional candidate drugs that may also be helpful for use during a radiological/nuclear emergency is ongoing. A chlorobenzyl sulfone derivative (organosulfur compound) known as Ex-Rad, or ON01210, is one such candidate medical countermeasure, being a novel, small-molecule kinase inhibitor that has demonstrated efficacy in the murine model. In this study, nonhuman primates exposed to ionizing radiation were subsequently administered Ex-Rad as two treatment schedules (Ex-Rad I administered 24 and 36 h post-irradiation, and Ex-Rad II administered 48 and 60 h post-irradiation) and the proteomic profiles of serum using a global molecular profiling approach were assessed. We observed that administration of Ex-Rad post-irradiation is capable of mitigating radiation-induced perturbations in protein abundance, particularly in restoring protein homeostasis, immune response, and mitigating hematopoietic damage, at least in part after acute exposure. Taken together, restoration of functionally significant pathway perturbations may serve to protect damage to vital organs and provide long-term survival benefits to the afflicted population.