Abstract
GLIOSAT: L’INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE AL SERVIZIO DELLA NEURO-ONCOLOGIA
Chantal Cappelletti(1), Cgiamtsi Cappelletti(2), Claudio Cappelletti(3), Filippo Graziani(1)
(1)Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Università “Sapienza”, Roma.
(2)S.S.N.- Regione Lazio - Divisione di Pronto Soccorso, Ospedale S. Maria Goretti Latina.
(3)S.S.N.- Regione Lazio - ASL RMG, ASL RMC. Divisione di Neurologia, Guidonia, Roma.
In the last two decades, the Group of Astrodynamics at the Aerospace Engineering School of University ”La Sapienza” (GAUSS) of Rome has been involved in the design and manufacturing of 4 microsatellites within the Unisat Program. In this framework different payloads has been carry out and tested in orbit.
Considering that the astronautic engineer will play a fundamental role in the future human space activities, GAUSS group is opening his research field to biomedical missions.
For this reason in 2008 of a biomedical payload for Unisat5, GlioSat, has been proposed. This research involved not only astronautical engineerings but also biologists, medical scientists and geneticists. In particular this research is strongly supported also by Genetica Medica, IRCCS-Hospital CSS San Giovanni Rotondo .
The primary objective of GlioSat is to investigate if the combined effect of microgravity and ionizing radiation increase or decrease the survival rate of cancer cells affected by Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor, accounting for 52% of all primary brain tumor cases and 20% of all intracranial tumors.
For this type of cancer, radiotherapy is the only treatment that increases the median survival time. Radiation therapy is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of a cancer treatment to control malignant cells. The biological effects of ionizing radiation and microgravity on the human body in space are the key concerns for space exploration and, at the same, they potentially provide successful biomedical applications and treatments. While radiotherapy is used on the ground for curative or adjuvant cancer treatment, it is possible that the combined effects of ionizing radiation and microgravity in space could either increase or decrease the survival rate of GBM cancer cells.
A cell set similar to the one in orbit will be monitored in parallel on the ground to accurately compare the cell behavior in a terrestrial environment to the one in orbit to understand possible differences.
During this research also a joint collaboration with the Exomedicine-Cancer Research Center at Space Science Center of the Morehead State University (MSU) in Kentucky has been carryied out. In this framework a 3U cubelabs (GlioLab) has been designed by students of both universities.
During a thirty-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS), GlioLab mission have to test in orbit the behavior of glioblastoma cancer cells and healthy neuronal cells, which are extremely fragile and require complex experimentation and testing.
