ArticleJCI insight2023
Circulating cell-free methylated DNA reveals tissue-specific, cellular damage from radiation treatment.
Article in JCI insight, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Circulating Cell-free DNA as a biomarker for radiation-induced injury: From mechanistic insights to clinical translation.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Review
- Article
- Cell-free DNA size deconvolution resolves nucleosomal origins and reveals tumor-associated fragmentomic alterations.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Beyond Circulating Tumor DNA for Efficacy: Can We Use Cell-Free DNA to Detect and Monitor Toxicity Signals?JCO precision oncology · 2026Article
- DNMT/TET Imbalance and Network-Level DNA Methylation Remodeling in Ovarian Aging: Mechanistic Perspectives.Biology · 2026Review
- Article
- Cell-free DNA methylation-based detection of organ damage following proton versus photon radiotherapy: a case series.Translational pediatrics · 2026Article
- Microvascular Health as a Key Determinant of Organismal Aging.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Piezo1: the Potential Novel Target for Radiation-induced Liver Fibrosis by Regulating FAP + fibroblasts.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2025Review
- Circulating cell-free DNA methylation patterns indicate cellular sources of allograft injury after liver transplant.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Circulating tumor DNA kinetics: A future tool for radiation therapy personalization in lung cancer?The journal of liquid biopsy · 2024Article
- Mining nucleic acid "omics" to boost liquid biopsy in cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Review
- CelFiE-ISH: a probabilistic model for multi-cell type deconvolution from single-molecule DNA methylation haplotypes.Genome biology · 2024Article
- Circulating, cell-free methylated DNA indicates cellular sources of allograft injury after liver transplant.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Cancer signature ensemble integrating cfDNA methylation, copy number, and fragmentation facilitates multi-cancer early detection.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Radiation therapy is an effective cancer treatment, although damage to healthy tissues is common. Here we analyzed cell-free, methylated DNA released from dying cells into the circulation to evaluate radiation-induced cellular damage in different tissues. To map the circulating DNA fragments to human and mouse tissues, we established sequencing-based, cell-type-specific reference DNA methylation atlases. We found that cell-type-specific DNA blocks were mostly hypomethylated and located within signature genes of cellular identity. Cell-free DNA fragments were captured from serum samples by hybridization to CpG-rich DNA panels and mapped to the DNA methylation atlases. In a mouse model, thoracic radiation-induced tissue damage was reflected by dose-dependent increases in lung endothelial and cardiomyocyte methylated DNA in serum. The analysis of serum samples from patients with breast cancer undergoing radiation treatment revealed distinct dose-dependent and tissue-specific epithelial and endothelial responses to radiation across multiple organs. Strikingly, patients treated for right-sided breast cancers also showed increased hepatocyte and liver endothelial DNA in the circulation, indicating the impact on liver tissues. Thus, changes in cell-free methylated DNA can uncover cell-type-specific effects of radiation and provide a readout of the biologically effective radiation dose received by healthy tissues.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.