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. 2021 Oct;95(10):3425-3432.
doi: 10.1007/s00204-021-03124-x. Epub 2021 Jul 24.

Low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT) for COVID-19 and its deadlier variants

Rachna Kapoor  1 , James S Welsh  2   3 , Vikas Dhawan  4 , Seyed Alireza Javadinia  5 , Edward J Calabrese  6 , Gaurav Dhawan  7
Affiliations

Low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT) for COVID-19 and its deadlier variants

Rachna Kapoor et al. Arch Toxicol. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Coronavirus variants are gaining strongholds throughout the globe. Despite early signals that SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus case numbers are easing up in the United States and during the middle of a (not so easy) vaccination roll out, the country has passed a grim landmark of 600,000 deaths. We contend that these numbers would have been much lower if the medical community undertook serious investigations into the potential of low doses of radiation (LDRT) as a mainstream treatment modality for COVID-19 pneumonia. LDRT has been posited to manifest anti-infectious and anti-inflammatory properties at doses of 0.3-1.0 Gy via the activation of the Nrf-2 pathway. Although some researchers are conducting well-designed clinical trials on the potential of LDRT, the deep-rooted, blind, and flawed acceptance of the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model for ionizing radiation has led to sidelining of this promising therapy and thus unimaginable numbers of deaths in the United States.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
LDRT induced Nrf2 activation and its effect on SARS-CoV-2 (including variants) induced pneumonitis (adapted from Calabrese et al. 2021)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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