Cranial
radiation therapy is one of the most effective treatments for childhood
brain cancers. Despite the ameliorated survival rate of juvenile patients, radiation exposure-induced brain neurogenic region injury could markedly impair patients' cognitive functions and even their quality of life. Determining the mechanism underlying neural stem cells (NSCs) response to irradiation stress is a crucial therapeutic strategy for
cognitive impairment. The present study demonstrated that X-ray irradiation arrested NSCs' cell cycle and impacted cell differentiation. To further characterize irradiation-induced molecular alterations in NSCs, two-dimensional high-resolution mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics analyses were conducted to explore the mechanism underlying ionizing radiation's influence on stem cell differentiation. We observed that ionizing radiation suppressed intracellular protein transport, neuron projection development, etc., particularly in differentiated cells. Redox proteomics was performed for the quantification of
cysteine thiol modifications in order to profile the oxidation-reduction status of
proteins in stem cells that underwent ionizing radiation treatment. Via conjoint screening of
protein expression abundance and redox status datasets, several significantly expressed and oxidized
proteins were identified in differentiating NSCs subjected to X-ray irradiation. Among these
proteins,
succinate dehydrogenase [ubiquinone]
flavoprotein subunit, mitochondrial (sdha) and the
acyl carrier protein, mitochondrial (Ndufab1) were highly related to
neurodegenerative diseases such as
Parkinson's disease,
Alzheimer's disease, and
Huntington's disease, illustrating the dual-character of NSCs in cell differentiation: following exposure to ionizing radiation, the normal differentiation of NSCs was compromised, and the upregulated oxidized
proteins implied a degenerative differentiation trajectory. These findings could be integrated into research on
neurodegenerative diseases and future preventive strategies.