Abstract
Research into the effects of low-dose radiation exposure is relevant due to an increase in the number of areas to which anthropogenic loading has occurred. Thorium is one of the radioactive elements naturally occurring in ecosystems; the amounts of thorium in the environment may be increased due to the activities related to the extraction of natural resources and operation of thermal power plants. Special interest focuses on the biological effects of thorium in the presence of humic substances as natural detoxicants. The aim of this study is to explore whether humic substances exert "mitigating" effects during exposure to thorium-232 at low-doses (< 0.04 Gy). A bioluminescent system of the enzymatic reactions including the bacterial luciferase and NADH: FMN-oxidoreductase has been chosen as a biological object. It was found that the activation of bioluminescence occurred in the initial stage of the exposure (up to 50 min) and production of reactive oxygen species increased after the 50 min exposure of this system to thorium-232. The relationship between the intensity of bioluminescence and the level of reactive oxygen species (correlation coefficient is −0.86) is shown. The addition of humic substances helps to neutralize thorium activity and reduce the level of reactive oxygen species to the control value. The effects of humic substances on the rate of NADH-dependent enzymatic process including redox reactions are shown. The results obtained contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of the effects of thorium-232 at molecular level and its neutralization effects on the enzymatic processes.
Published Version
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