Department of Radiation Oncology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany.
Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Max-Delbrück-Centrum (MDC), Robert-Rössle-Str. 10, 13092, Berlin, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 10;10(1):13488. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69561-3.
We explored the non-thermal effects of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields and established a theoretical framework to elucidate their electrophysiological mechanisms. In experiments, we used a preclinical treatment device to treat the human colon cancer cell lines HT-29 and SW480 with either water bath heating (WB-HT) or 13.56 MHz RF hyperthermia (RF-HT) at 42 °C for 60 min and analyzed the proliferation and clonogenicity. We elaborated an electrical model for cell membranes and ion channels and estimated the resulting ion fluxes. The results showed that, for both cell lines, using RF-HT significantly reduced proliferation and clonogenicity compared to WB-HT. According to our model, the RF electric field component was rectified and smoothed in the direction of the channel, which resulted in a DC voltage of ~ 1 µV. This may induce ion fluxes that can potentially cause relevant disequilibrium of most ions. Therefore, RF-HT creates additional non-thermal effects in association with significant ion fluxes. Increasing the understanding of these effects can help improve cancer therapy.
我们探讨了射频 (RF) 电磁场的非热效应，并建立了一个理论框架来阐明其电生理学机制。在实验中，我们使用临床前治疗设备，以水疗加热（WB-HT）或 13.56MHz RF 热疗（RF-HT）在 42°C 下处理人结肠癌细胞系 HT-29 和 SW480 60 分钟，并分析增殖和集落形成。我们详细阐述了细胞膜和离子通道的电模型，并估算了由此产生的离子通量。结果表明，对于这两种细胞系，与 WB-HT 相比，RF-HT 显著降低了增殖和集落形成能力。根据我们的模型，RF 电场分量在通道方向上被整流和平滑化，从而产生约 1µV 的直流电压。这可能会引起潜在的离子通量，导致大多数离子发生相关的失衡。因此，RF-HT 会产生与显著离子通量相关的额外非热效应。增加对这些效应的理解有助于改善癌症治疗。
