RRx-001 and the "Right stuff": Protection and treatment in outer space. (PubMed, Life Sci Space Res (Amst))
From antibiotics to aspirin to antimalarials and to anticancer agents, about half of the world's best-selling drugs are derived from nature. As manned missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids as well as space tourism beckon, it is perhaps fitting that a compound like RRx-001, which is derived from 1,3,3-Trinitroazetidine (TNAZ), an explosive propellant for rockets, is a potential "all purpose" option to mitigate the major biomedical effects of space radiation exposures including cancer development and other tissue degenerations both within mission and after mission. This article highlights the promise of RRx-001 to attenuate the acute and late effects of radiation exposure on astronauts including the development of cancer.