The psychological consequences of the Chernobyl accident--findings from the International Atomic Energy Agency Study.

In October 1989, more than 3 years after the nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics requested that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) evaluate the medical and psychological health of residents living in areas identified as being contaminated with radioactive fallout. The IAEA designed and conducted a collaborative study to examine whether there were any measurable effects of exposure to the low levels of ionizing radiation resulting from the accident. The study, using structured interviews and IAEA laboratory equipment, collected data on more than 1,350 residents of 13 villages. IAEA clinical staff members concluded that they could not identify any health disorders in either the contaminated or nearby (uncontaminated) control villages that could be attributed directly to radiation exposure. The clinical staff, however, did note that the levels of anxiety and stress of the villagers appeared to be disproportionate to the biological significance of the levels of IAEA-measured radio-active contamination. Almost half the adults in all the villages were unsure if they had a radiation-related illness. More than 70 percent of persons in the contaminated villages wanted to move away, and approximately 83 percent believed that the government should relocate them. The IAEA effort indicates that the villagers need to be educated about their actual risks, and they need to understand what types of illnesses are, and are not, associated with exposure to radioactive contamination. Unfortunately, the villagers'' needs may exceed the available resources of their local and central governments.     

Gene therapy of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Two-year experiments were performed to evaluate the neurotrophic effect of hypoxia-inducible factors (vascular endothelial growth factor and angiogenin) expressed in recombinant human adenoviruses in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Randomized placebo-controlled trial demonstrated safety and good tolerability of the recombinant antiviral drugs. The life span of patients under conditions of hypoxia increased after treatment with the test drug, which was probably related to improved resistance of motoneurons. The presence of virus-neutralizing antibodies decreases the effectiveness of adenoviral vectors, which necessitates differential approach to the selection of patients and continuous monitoring of gene therapy. __________ Translated from Byulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 145, No. 4, pp. 467–470, April, 2008