Astronauts participating in long-duration missions may be at an increased risk of oxidative stress and inflammatory damage due to radiation, psychological stress, altered physical activity,…

This is a grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to KBR Wyle Services, LLC, a for-profit manufacturer, to conduct research on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on astronauts. The research aims to determine whether spaceflight factors such as radiation, psychological stress, and altered physical activity contribute to the accelerated progression of atherosclerosis. The study will measure biomarkers, arterial structure and function, and genomic and metabolomic markers in one twin astronaut before, during, and after long-duration spaceflight, and compare the findings to his twin serving as a ground-based control. The potential value of this award is $132,624.24, and it does not have a set-aside designation.

Astronauts participating in long-duration missions may be at an increased risk of oxidative stress and inflammatory damage due to radiation, psychological stress, altered physical activity, nutritional insufficiency, and hyperoxia during extravehicular activity. This proposal extends a current NASA-funded investigation to determine whether these spaceflight factors contribute to an accelerated progression of atherosclerosis. We propose to measure blood and urine biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as arterial structure and function (carotid intima-medial thickness and brachial artery flow-mediated dilation) in one twin astronaut before, during, and after long duration spaceflight and in his twin serving as a ground-based control. Furthermore, we will measure metabolomic and genomic (DNA methylation, mrna gene expression, telomere length) markers to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved. We predict that the space-flown twin will experience elevated biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammatory damage, altered arterial structure and function, accelerated telomere shortening, dysregulation of genes associated with oxidative stress and inflammation, and a metabolic profile shift that is associated with elevated atherosclerosis risk factors. Conversely, these will not be observed in the ground-based twin. This study of twins affords a unique opportunity to examine the spaceflight-related atherosclerosis risk independent of the confounding factors of different genotypes.