In vitro study on the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) and selected vegetable extracts in H69PR small cell lung cancer

• Main Authors: Ombid, Ric John L., Pobre, Romeric F., Oyong, Glenn G., Cabrera, Esperanza C., Enriquez, Ma. Luisa D.A., Noel, Marissa G., Malabed, Raymond S.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Small cell lung cancer; Plant extracts—Toxicity testing; Diseases; Physics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11546
• Institution: De La Salle University

We performed an in vitro study on the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of PEMF and selected vegetable extracts on the small cell lung cancer cell line H69PR. A Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) brand device was used to generate an amplitude-modulated PEMF signal that was set at 3.1 MHz carrier frequency in the radio wave region. Vegetable extracts were prepared as crude aqueous with the following concentrations (g/mL): Moringa oleifera (MO): 1.0843, Basella alba (BA): 4.7969, Raphanus sativus (RS): 2.2609, Alium sativum (AS): 6.7111; and Nasturtium officinale (NO): 1.4539. Three groups (i.e. positive control group, negative control group, and treated group) were set up to monitor the combined effects of PEMF and selected vegetable extracts using PrestoBlue resazurin cytotoxicity assay and a modified Comet genotoxicity assay platform. Crude vegetable extracts afforded cytotoxic activities on H69PR with IC50 (μg/mL) values of 10.59 (MO), 7.26 (BA), 11.59 (RA), and 25.17 (AS), respectively. No cytotoxic activity was observed in NO (> 30 μg/mL). Combined PEMF and vegetable extract (IC50) treatments showed a significant increase in H69PR cell death compared to the negative control group (p < 0.05). The results expressed in cytotoxicity index or CI% are as follows: 24.235.03% (MO+26.02 kHz, 3 min), 24.113.14% (BA+9.92 kHz, 3 min), 22.753.23% (RS+26.02 kHz, 3 min), and 29.164.20% (AS+9.92 kHz, 3min). CI% of the negative control was 2.39±0.23%. All combined treatment parameters had no significant difference (p > 0.05). In terms of genotoxic effects, individual treatments with crude extract (IC50) and PEMF respectively afforded significant DNA damage compared to the untreated control (p < 0.05). Additionally, the combined treatment of PEMF and all vegetable extracts in H69PR remarkably showed greater genotoxic effect compared to the Zeocin (Z) positive control group (p < 0.05) in terms of the tail length (124.27 MO, 125.72 BA, 124.63 RS, 124.83 AS; 118.24 Z), % DNA damage (84.28% MO, 85.37% BA, 84.28% RS, 84.52% AS; 70.28% Z), and tail moment (93.28 MO, 94.28 BA, 93.39 RS, 93.28 AS; 88.44 Z) based on CometScore analysis. Overall, our results suggest that combined PEMF and vegetable extract (IC50) treatments demonstrated cytotoxic effects and enhanced genotoxic effects against H69PR.