Atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) has emerged rapidly as a potent tool for cancer therapy thanks to its multiple anti-cancer effects. Depending on the types, APP has been shown to induce necrosis, apoptosis, or senescence in cancer cells in vitro and reduce tumor size in vivo. While recent progress in plasma medicine has led to various hypotheses for the molecular mechanism of APP, the key effector in anti-cancer processes still remains elusive. In this study, we show that APP treatment on an invasive breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) dramatically alters these cells' morphology and further suppresses migratory activity. In addition to the functional changes, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, such as vimentin and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), were found to be down-regulated in MDA-MB-231 by the APP treatment. As a result, APP treatment appears to impact the invasive nature of cancer cells, motivating the possible use of APP as a therapeutic tool to suppress cancer metastasis.

中文翻译：

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常压等离子体抑制乳腺癌细胞迁移和上皮间质转化

由于其多重抗癌作用，常压等离子体 (APP) 已迅速成为癌症治疗的有力工具。根据类型，APP 已显示在体​​外诱导癌细胞坏死、凋亡或衰老，并在体内减小肿瘤大小。虽然血浆医学的最新进展导致了对 APP 分子机制的各种假设，但抗癌过程中的关键效应物仍然难以捉摸。在这项研究中，我们展示了 APP 对侵袭性乳腺癌细胞系 (MDA-MB-231) 的治疗显着改变了这些细胞的形态并进一步抑制了迁移活动。除了功能变化之外，还发现通过 APP 处理在 MDA-MB-231 中下调上皮至间充质转化 (EMT) 标志物，例如波形蛋白和 α-平滑肌肌动蛋白 (α-SMA)。