Effects of the pulse width on the reactive species production and DNA damage in cancer cells exposed to atmospheric pressure microsecond-pulsed helium plasma jets

Hea Min Joh,Ji Ye Choi,Sun Ja Kim,T H Chung,Tae Hong Kang

doi:10.1063/1.4994221

Abstract

Plasma-liquid and plasma-cell interactions were investigated using an atmospheric pressure dc microsecond-pulsed helium plasma jet. We investigated the effects of the electrical parameters such as applied voltage and pulse width (determined by the pulse frequency and duty ratio) on the production of reactive species in the gas/liquid phases and on the DNA damage responses in the cancer cells. The densities of reactive species including OH radicals were estimated inside the plasma-treated liquids using a chemical probe method, and the nitrite concentration was detected by Griess assay. Importantly, the more concentration of OH resulted in the more DNA base oxidation and breaks in human lung cancer A549 cells. The data are very suggestive that there is strong correlation between the production of OH in the plasmas/liquids and the DNA damage.

Highlights

Since atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) can produce non-thermal plasma, characterized by reactivity, compactness, and high efficiency,[1,2,3] their applications have rapidly expanded to biology and medicine.[4,5,6,7,8] In particular, the use of APPJs in cancer therapies is drawing considerable attention because plasmas contain short lived free radicals, including reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), charged species, and electric fields, that can induce apoptosis in cancer cells
To determine whether the amount of RONS generated in the gas and liquid phases directly evokes DNA lesions, we evaluated the effects of electrical parameters of APPJs on the production of the RONS and explore the correlation between the RONS production and the DNA damage responses within human lung cancer A549 cells
We describe the effect of electrical parameters of APPJs on the production of the RONS and explore the correlation between the RONS produced in both the gas and liquid phases and the DNA damage within cancer cells

Summary

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Hea Min Joh,[1] Ji Ye Choi,[2] Sun Ja Kim,[1] Tae Hong Kang,[2] and T. H. Chung1,a 1Department of Physics, Dong-A University, 49315 Busan, Korea 2Department of Biological Sciences, Dong-A University, 49315 Busan, Korea (Received 4 July 2017; accepted 4 August 2017; published online 11 August 2017)

INTRODUCTION

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CONCLUSION