Cellular mechanisms of radiation-induced myocyte dysfunction: effects on calcium handling, ion channel regulation and mitochondrial energetics
April 2026
Abstract
Ionizing radiation induces a range of cellular responses in cardiomyocytes that vary with the dose, duration of exposure and metabolic state. Although historically attributed to microvascular injury and fibrosis, radiation-induced cardiac dysfunction is now recognized to originate from direct perturbations of myocyte calcium handling, ion channel regulation and mitochondrial energetics. Low to moderate radiation doses generate sustained reactive oxygen species (ROS) that activate oxidation-dependent calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) signalling, leading to disrupted sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium cycling, altered sodium and calcium currents and increased susceptibility to early and delayed after-depolarizations. Mitochondrial structural and energetic instability further amplifies ROS–CaMKII feedback, promoting a pro-arrhythmic electrophysiological substrate. High-dose radiation exposures, such as those used in cardiac stereotactic body radiotherapy, lead to a distinct electrical reprogramming phenotype characterized by coordinated upregulation of sodium channels, calcium channels, potassium channels and gap junction proteins. The resulting emergent effects are to enhance conduction velocity and electrical homogeneity that together provide a mechanistic explanation for the rapid anti-arrhythmic effects observed clinically, even independent of fibrosis. Across the radiation dose spectrum, the mitochondria serve as key integrators of redox stress and calcium overload, shaping the transition from reversible signalling alterations to persistent remodelling. This review synthesizes mechanistic patterns underlying radiation-induced myocyte dysfunction, highlights unresolved discrepancies across experimental models and discusses how computational modelling might be the ideal tool to predict optimal therapeutic radiation delivery while mitigating long-term cardiotoxicity.
Natural language processing of biomedical text to map and prioritize protein–disease associations in HFpEF
March 2026
Abstract
The validation of promising clinical biomarkers, molecular mechanisms, and novel drug targets in cardiovascular disease (CVD) is hindered by a vast and fragmented biomedical literature, which now exceeds 38 million publications indexed in PubMed. To address the central challenge of navigating and synthesizing a huge fragmented biomedical literature base, we applied our validated machine learning–based text-mining algorithm containing natural language processing (NLP) and incorporated this into a ValIdated Text-mining using Advanced Language model (VITAL) as a complementary framework.
2nd Worldwide Sodium Channel Conference 2026
February 2026 — Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy attended the 2nd World Sodium Channel Conference in Grindelwald, Switzerland, and presented a recently published research project entitled “Exploring voltage-gated sodium channel conformations and protein–protein interactions using AlphaFold2”. This study demonstrates the power of deep learning–based structural methods to advance understanding of voltage-gated sodium channel gating and drug modulation, while emphasizing that computationally predicted states remain hypotheses requiring experimental validation.
Theranostics Digital Twins: A Path to Personalized Medicine
January 2026 — On January 14, the Data Science Seminar Series has tackled an intersection of two critical data science concepts in cancer research: theranostics and digital twins. Emilie Roncali, an associate profession at UC Davis, gave an overview of how these concepts work in practice in liver, prostate, and metastatic cancer.
Society welcomes inaugural Editors-in-Chief for The Journal of Precision Medicine: Health and Disease and The Journal of Nutritional Physiology
Following the announcement of The Physiological Society’s partnership with Elsevier to launch a new journal, we are delighted to introduce the Editor-in-Chief (Colleen E. Clancy) and Deputy Editor in Chief (Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy) of The Journal of Precision Medicine: Health and Disease.