Chen Bangjie, Jin Tao, Fu Ziyue, Li Haiwen, Yang Junfa, Liu Yucheng, Han Yanxun, Wang Xinyi, Wu Zhengwei, Xu Tao
First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
Heliyon. 2023 May 3;9(5):e15992. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15992. eCollection 2023 May.
Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is thought to have a cytotoxic effect on tumor cells. Although its application in cancer therapy has shown considerable promise, the current understanding of its mechanism of action and cellular responses remains incomplete. Furthermore, the use of melatonin (MEL) as an adjuvant anticancer drug remains unexplored. In this study, we found that NTP assists MEL in promoting apoptosis, delaying cell cycle progression, and inhibiting cell invasion and migration in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. This mechanism may be associated with the regulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species levels and ribonucleotide reductase regulatory subunit M2 expression. Our findings confirm the pharmacological role of MEL and the adjuvant value of NTP, emphasizing their potential in combination therapy for HCC. Our study may have important implications for the development of new approaches for HCC treatment.
非热等离子体（NTP）被认为对肿瘤细胞具有细胞毒性作用。尽管其在癌症治疗中的应用已显示出相当大的前景，但目前对其作用机制和细胞反应的理解仍不完整。此外，褪黑素（MEL）作为辅助抗癌药物的用途尚未得到探索。在本研究中，我们发现NTP协助MEL促进细胞凋亡、延迟细胞周期进程，并抑制肝癌（HCC）细胞的侵袭和迁移。该机制可能与细胞内活性氧水平和核糖核苷酸还原酶调节亚基M2表达的调节有关。我们的研究结果证实了MEL的药理作用和NTP的辅助价值，强调了它们在HCC联合治疗中的潜力。我们的研究可能对HCC治疗新方法的开发具有重要意义。
