Effects of atmospheric-pressure non-thermal bio-compatible plasma and plasma activated nitric oxide water on cervical cancer cells

July 28, 2017

Title

Effects of atmospheric-pressure non-thermal bio-compatible plasma and plasma activated nitric oxide water on cervical cancer cells

Author

Ying Li, Min Ho Kang, Han Sup Uhm, Geon Joon Lee, Eun Ha Choi, Ihn Han

Year

2017

Journal

Scientific Reports

Abstract

Atmospheric-pressure non-thermal bio-compatible plasma is a partially ionized gas with electrically charged particles. Previous studies demonstrated that dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma could induce apoptosis of various cancer cells, in particular demonstrating the selective cytotoxicity of cancer cells over normal cells. Therefore, DBD plasma can be considered as a potential cancer treatment method for clinical applications. We previously developed a microwave jet plasma system, producing nitric oxide called nitric oxide-plasma activated water (NO-PAW). In this study, we explored the effects of NO-PAW on a cervical cancer cell line, in comparison with DBD plasma. The cytotoxicity results showed that the treatment of HeLa cell with DBD for 4 minutes and 7 μM concentration of NO-PAW could reach almost IC60. For the apoptosis assay, 4 minutes treatment of DBD could induce 7% apoptotic effect, whereas 7 μM NO-PAW could induce 18% apoptotic effect. In addition, we assumed that both DBD plasma and NO-PAW could induce HeLa cell apoptosis by facilitating an accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Although further detail on the molecular signal pathway is still needed, DBD and NO-PAW could become promising applications for effective and safe clinical trials for cancer therapy.

Instrument

J-815

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Chemical stability, Biochemistry