Kashirina, D. N., et al. “A Study on the Protein Composition of Dry Blood Spots of Healthy Volunteers in an Experiment with Hypomagnetic Conditions.” Human Physiology 49.1 (2023): 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119722600369

Abstract

Hypomagnetic conditions (HMCs) will be an integral part of the complex of factors affecting astronauts in long-term interplanetary missions outside Earth’s magnetic field. The adaptation of the human body under these conditions will affect the regulatory processes in various physiological systems, the molecular pathways of which, with the participation of proteins, have not yet been studied. In order to fill this gap, dry blood spots collected on a special paper from healthy volunteers were studied by proteomic methods in two sessions of a model experiment: with HMCs and in a placebo session. The experiment was carried out by the method of double-blind control, with the participation of the same volunteers in both sessions. 1219 different proteins were semiquantitatively determined in the samples. In the HMC series, changes relative to individual values before the experiment series were detected in three proteins: tropomyosin alpha-3 chain (TPM3), abhydrolase domain-containing protein 14B (ABHD14B), and acetylcholinesterase-associated protein (CUTA). However, comparison of the data obtained in the placebo session smoothed out the effect of HMCs on changes in the above proteins. The results may mean either the absence of HMC influence with a short exposure and the absence of a cumulative effect, or they are unreliable due to the insufficient number of subjects in the sample.