An investigation of the influence of reactive oxygen species produced from riboflavin-5'-phosphate by blue or violet light on the inhibition of WiDr colon cancer cells

Abstract

Riboflavin-5'-phosphate (FMN), an innocuous product of riboflavin (RF) phosphorylation, is vital for humans. FMN is sensitive to light illumination, as indicated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. This investigation was undertaken to evaluate the influence of blue light illumination (BLI) and violet light illumination (VLI) upon FMN to develop a method to inhibit WiDr colon cancer cells by FMN photolysis. When FMN is subjected to BLI and VLI, it inhibits WiDr colon cancer cells by generating superoxide radical anions (O₂^•-). The respective reduction rates are 42.6 and 81.9 % in WiDr colon cancer cells for FMN treated with BLI and VLI at 20 W/m² for 0.5 h. FMN treated with VLI inhibits WiDr colon cancer cells more effectively than BLI. Propidium iodide (PI) is a fluorescent dye that is used to detect abnormal DNA due to cell death by apoptosis or necrosis. The PI-positive count for nuclei increased significantly for the WiDr colon cancer cells that were treated with FMN under VLI at 20 W/m² for 0.5 h. FMN photolysis achieved using VLI allows efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT) by triggering the cytotoxicity of FMN on WiDr colon cancer cells.

Keywords: Blue light; FMN; Photodynamic therapy; Photolysis; ROS; Violet light.