Anti-radiation damage effect of polyethylenimine as a toll-like receptor 5 targeted agonist

Hu, Zhiqiang; Xing, Yaling; Qian, Yuanyu; Chen, Xiaojuan; Tu, Jian; Ren, Lening; Wang, Kai; Chen, Zhongbin

Similar to the function of flagellin protein, PEI provides a radio-protective effect. Our data obtained from in vivo experiments provide strong evidence that PEI plays a significant role in radiation protection. PEI can not only prevent animal weight loss caused by γ-ray irradiation, but also significantly increases animal body weight over a period of 30 days. In addition, PEI improves animal quality of life, prolongs animal survival time and reduces mortality. The 50% and 36% mortality rates in low-and high-dose PEI groups, respectively, are most likely due to insufficient radiation protection provided by the dose of PEI administrated. The dose might have been too low to provide complete radiation protection. If higher mortality resulted from high doses of PEI, the mortality observed in the high-dose (10 mg/kg) group should have been greater than that of the low-dose (5 mg/kg) group, but the pattern observed was in fact the opposite.