This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of using the mussel as a bioindicator for the rapid detection of heavy metal (such as Cd, Pb, Hg, Ni, Cr, Cu, As, and Zn) fluctuations in aquatic environments and the sensitivity of the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in muscle tissues over time. The seasonal bioaccumulation patterns of heavy metals within Asian green mussels (Perna viridis), from Vietnamese coastal waters of Hai Phong were investigated using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Additionally, the health risks from the consumption of P. viridis by local people were assessed. Mussels of varying sizes were sampled on a monthly basis between March (dry season) and July 2024 (wet season). The results revealed that the hepatopancreas had substantially higher concentrations of metals at all times relative to their corresponding muscle tissues, confirming its appropriateness as a bioindicator organ. The concentrations of heavy metals in mussels were recorded as significantly lower than the guideline levels, except for arsenic (As). Zinc (Zn) showed the highest concentrations, while mercury (Hg) had the lowest concentrations. There were strong seasonal and monthly differences, with peak levels of Pb, Cr, and As during the dry season, and high levels of Cs and Cu during the rainy season. It was found that the condition index, physiological factors, and shell size all had major impacts on the absorption of specific heavy metals. It was indicated that Pb, Cr, As, Cs, and Cu bioaccumulation are both biologically and environmentally responsive and can be used as proxies for environmental contamination, while the accumulation of these metals correlated with biological traits (shell length, weight, and CI), which is useful in modeling efforts. Health risk assessments using target hazard quotients (THQs) and the total hazard index (THI) identified Pb in the hepatopancreas as a primary contributor to the non-carcinogenic risk (THQ > 1), particularly during the dry season. The findings revealed the suitability of P. viridis, particularly hepatopancreatic tissue, as a short-term biomonitoring tool for detecting spikes and rapid fluctuations of certain heavy metals and assessing related human health risks in coastal aquatic systems.

The impact of ionising radiation (IR) from environmental and therapeutic sources is complex and extends beyond the damage to DNA. These perturbations are conveyed by regulatory networks, such as transcription factors, microRNAs, long non-coding RNA, and signaling cascades, which in the end affect the susceptibility, progression, and treatment response to cancer. The traditional reductionist approaches, which are very useful, are not enough to explain emergent properties of these dynamic systems. The system’s biology paradigm has a great potential of providing the explanation of the rewiring of cellular networks by radiation and identify novel targets to be targeted in precision oncology. The review summarizes the current literature on radiation-induced alterations of network patterns and on the remodelling of the molecular landscape of cancer cells due to exposure to environmental radioactivity and therapeutic radiation exposure. We create awareness of methodological progress in the development and analysis of radiation-responsive regulatory networks, identify key hub molecules and pathways, and discuss the translation potential of using radiation-responsive regulatory networks in individual radiotherapy. This review is different from previous reviews that have concentrated on single mechanisms in single-omics viewpoints or focused on a single radiation type as environmental or therapeutic, since it brings together network topology analysis, multi-omics data and clinical translatability in the context of both types of radiation exposure. We explore how weaknesses in radiation-sensitive components of a tumor can be used to target radiation-resistant ones while at the same time, radiation-induced damage to normal tissues can be reduced by network-aware approaches.