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  • Plasma Treated Water Solutions in Cancer Treatments: The Contrasting Role of RNS.

Plasma Treated Water Solutions in Cancer Treatments: The Contrasting Role of RNS.

Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) (2021-05-01)
Eloisa Sardella, Valeria Veronico, Roberto Gristina, Loris Grossi, Savino Cosmai, Marinella Striccoli, Maura Buttiglione, Francesco Fracassi, Pietro Favia
ABSTRACT

Plasma Treated Water Solutions (PTWS) recently emerged as a novel tool for the generation of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (ROS and RNS) in liquids. The presence of ROS with a strong oxidative power, like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), has been proposed as the main effector for the cancer-killing properties of PTWS. A protective role has been postulated for RNS, with nitric oxide (NO) being involved in the activation of antioxidant responses and cell survival. However, recent evidences proved that NO-derivatives in proper mixtures with ROS in PTWS could enhance rather than reduce the selectivity of PTWS-induced cancer cell death through the inhibition of specific antioxidant cancer defenses. In this paper we discuss the formation of RNS in different liquids with a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), to show that NO is absent in PTWS of complex composition like plasma treated (PT)-cell culture media used for in vitro experiments, as well as its supposed protective role. Nitrite anions (NO2-) instead, present in our PTWS, were found to improve the selective death of Saos2 cancer cells compared to EA.hy926 cells by decreasing the cytotoxic threshold of H2O2 to non-toxic values for the endothelial cell line.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
L-Cystine, ≥98% (TLC), crystalline
Sigma-Aldrich
L-Glutamine solution, 200 mM, solution, sterile-filtered, BioXtra, suitable for cell culture
Sigma-Aldrich
Trypsin-EDTA solution, 0.25%, sterile-filtered, BioReagent, suitable for cell culture, 2.5 g porcine trypsin and 0.2 g EDTA, 4Na per liter of Hanks′ Balanced Salt Solution with phenol red
Sigma-Aldrich
Dichloromethane, anhydrous, ≥99.8%, contains 40-150 ppm amylene as stabilizer
Sigma-Aldrich
Fetal Bovine Serum, non-USA origin, sterile-filtered, suitable for cell culture