Have scientists found a way to survive a nuclear war?

The world may have a way of increasing chances of survival in case of a nuclear war.

Chinese researchers have developed a treatment that significantly boosts survival rates in mice exposed to lethal levels of radiation. The discovery could one day make cancer treatments safer or improve survival odds in the event of nuclear war.

The study, led by Sun Yirong, an associate research fellow at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, revealed that knocking out a protein known as Sting– or stimulator of interferon genes– increased the survival rate of irradiated mice from 11 per cent to 67 per cent, South China Morning Post reported.

The findings were published last week in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation.

High doses of radiation– such as those from nuclear explosions, power plant accidents, or cancer radiotherapy– break down DNA and cause widespread cell death. In nuclear disasters, fallout can be deadlier than the initial blast.

Cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy also face risks of fatal gastrointestinal syndromes due to radiation damage.

“The therapies developed based on the new discovery of Sting proteins have shown great potential in protecting against radiation injury, enhancing cancer radiotherapy, and improving cancer treatment,” Sun told China Science Daily.

The research found that mice with functioning Sting proteins suffered more severe abdominal injuries than those without the protein. Sting appears to activate a newly identified signalling pathway linked to increased cell death. An examination of the intestines of the mice revealed that the villi– tiny structures that absorb nutrients– were 2.3 times higher in Sting-deficient mice, suggesting greater resistance to radiation, SCMP reported.

Additionally, the rate of cell death in the Sting-knockout mice fell from 45 per cent to 12 per cent after radiation exposure. That led to the deduction that the protein likely plays a key role in the body’s vulnerability to radiation damage.

The findings could have major implications, especially since some estimates suggest that in a nuclear conflict, more people would die from radioactive fallout than from the initial blasts.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed at least 100,000 people, many from radiation exposure. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, resulted in around 4,000 deaths, many occurring years later due to radiation-related cancers.