Plasma-activated medium promotes autophagic cell death along with alteration of the mTOR pathway

Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 31;10(1):1614. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58667-3.

Abstract

The biological function of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma has been widely accepted in several types of cancer. We previously developed plasma-activated medium (PAM) for clinical use, and demonstrated that PAM exhibits a metastasis-inhibitory effect on ovarian cancer through reduced MMP-9 secretion. However, the anti-tumor effects of PAM on endometrial cancer remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of PAM on endometrial cancer cell viability in vitro. Our results demonstrated that AMEC and HEC50 cell viabilities were reduced by PAM at a certain PAM ratio, and PAM treatment effectively increased autophagic cell death in a concentration dependent manner. In addition, we evaluated the molecular mechanism of PAM activity and found that the mTOR pathway was inactivated by PAM. Moreover, our results demonstrated that the autophagy inhibitor MHY1485 partially inhibited the autophagic cell death induced by PAM treatment. These findings indicate that PAM decreases the viability of endometrial cancer cells along with alteration of the mTOR pathway, which is critical for cancer cell viability. Collectively, our data suggest that PAM inhibits cell viability while inducing autophagic cell death in endometrial cancer cells, representing a potential novel treatment for endometrial cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Autophagic Cell Death / drug effects*
  • Autophagy / drug effects*
  • Biological Factors / pharmacology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Survival / drug effects
  • Endometrial Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Endometrial Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Morpholines / pharmacology
  • Plasma / metabolism*
  • Reactive Oxygen Species / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects*
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism*
  • Triazines / pharmacology

Substances

  • 4,6-dimorpholino-N-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3,5-triazin-2-amine
  • Biological Factors
  • Morpholines
  • Reactive Oxygen Species
  • Triazines
  • MTOR protein, human
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases