Non-thermal plasma-treated melatonin inhibits the biological activity of HCC cells by increasing intracellular ROS levels and reducing RRM2 expression.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Chen, Bangjie Jin, Tao Fu, Ziyue Li, Haiwen Yang, Junfa Liu, Yucheng Han, Yanxun Wang, Xinyi Wu, Zhengwei Xu, Tao
Copyright Year	2023
Abstract	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.
Journal	Heliyon
Volume Number	9
PubMed Central reference number	PMC10192739
Issue Number	5
PubMed reference number	37215864
e-ISSN	24058440
DOI	10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15992
Language	English
Publisher	Elsevier
Publisher Date	2023-05-03
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Subject Keyword	Non-thermal plasma Melatonin Ribonucleotide reductase regulatory subunit M2 Reactive oxygen species Oncotherapy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Multidisciplinary