Enhancing cold atmospheric plasma treatment of cancer cells by static magnetic field

Abstract

It has been reported since late 1970 that magnetic field interacts strongly with biological systems. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has also been widely studied over the past few decades in physics, biology, and medicine. In this study, we propose a novel idea to combine static magnetic field (SMF) with CAP as a tool for cancer therapy. Breast cancer cells and wild type fibroblasts were cultured in 96-well plates and treated by CAP with or without SMF. Breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 showed a significant decrease in viability after direct plasma treatment with SMF (compared to only plasma treatment). In addition, cancer cells treated by the CAP-SMF-activated medium (indirect treatment) also showed viability decrease but was slightly weaker than the direct plasma-SMF treatment. By integrating the use of SMF and CAP, we were able to discover their advantages that have yet to be utilized. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:53–62, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

• Enhanced PDF
• Standard PDF (1.1 MB)

INTRODUCTION

In the past few decades, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been widely used in various fields such as material processing [Zelzer et al., 2012], bacterial inactivation [Deng et al., 2007], wound healing, cut coagulation [Isbary et al., 2012], cancer therapy [Shashurin et al., 2008; Keidar et al., 2011; Barekzi and Laroussi, 2012; Walk et al., 2013], and viral destruction [Shi et al., 2012]. The temperature of heavy species in CAP is usually close to room temperature, allowing its application to living tissue treatment [Keidar, 2015].
It has been reported since the late 1970s that a magnetic field (MF) appears to have a strong effect on biological systems [Bawin and Sabbot, 1978; Liboff, 1985; Halle, 1988; Liboff and McLeod, 1988]. Research on the electromagnetic field effect on biological systems advanced after Wertheimer and Leeper [1979] found that the likelihood of developing leukemia in children increased as they were present in 60 Hz frequency electromagnetic field. As the research progressed, it appeared as though vibrational energy levels in the ion–protein complex were pumping into the system, which was creating parametric resonance. This occurs when the atoms shake slightly [Lednev, 1991]. This “shaking” is an anomaly that can change ion flux through the cell membrane [Liboff et al., 1987] or cell mobility [McLeod et al., 1987; Smith et al., 1987]. Santoro et al. [1997] showed that extremely low frequency (ELF) MFs influence physiological processes in different organisms, such as plasma membrane structure modification and initiation of signal cascade pathways interference. Cell membrane morphology modification by ELF was again reaffirmed by Ikehara et al. [2003], who found that exposure to the ELF MF has reversible effects on NH inplane bending and CN stretching vibrations of peptide linkages, and changes the secondary structures of α-helix and β-sheet in cell membrane proteins.
Link to Publication