Effect of hyperfractionated irradiation (HFRT) of prostate primary basal cells (PrEPs) on the transcriptome

We irradiated PrEPs derived from four patients undergoing radical prostatectomy according to a HFRT protocol (20 single treatments). Transcriptome was analysed by NextGen sequencing. Gene expression profiling revealed a dysregulation of 3468 genes at mRNA level (1470 upregulated and 1998 downregulated). We could characterize cells surviving the lethal effects of radiation by two gene expression signatures showing that these cells have low expression of genes related to DNA damage response and Interferon signaling pathways. These findings could be exploited to develop new drugs for radiotherapy improvement. PrEPs derived from 4 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy were irradiated with either 0.5 or 1 Gray (Gy) for 5 times a week (4 weeks in total) using a linear accelerator. An untreated control group was included. Cells were allowed to recover for one week before all groups received a final 1 Gy treatment 24 hours before harvesting total RNA and RNA sequencing. Bioinformatical analysis was conducted on irradiated samples versus control group. Group A = 1 Gy irradiation, group B = 0.5 Gy irradiation, group CTRL = 0 Gy irradiation.