Influence of Far Infrared Radiation on cytotoxicity of Human Breast Cancer (MCF7) cells: experimental evaluation

The fact that low intensity light has certain therapeutic effect has been proven through a number of research studies. There are studies that showed the applied electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the visible and infrared light range can modulate protein and cellular activity. Here we have evaluated experimentally the hypothesis of the Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) that selectivity of protein activities is based on specific resonant electromagnetic interactions. The RRM theory proposes that an external electromagnetic field at a particular activation frequency would produce resonant effects on a protein biological activity, and this activation frequency can be determined computationally [1]. In our previous study 46 oncogene proteins were analyzed using the RRM and their characteristic frequency that correspond to their common biological activity was determined [2]. As reported in [3], the wavelengths of the applied electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in a range of 3500-6400nm are expected to affect biological activity of oncogene proteins. Thus, we designed the exposure system based on IR-LED to irradiate the selected cancer and normal cells in the wavelength range predicted computationally by the RRM [3]. The experimental evaluation of the attained far infrared wavelengths of 3400nm, 3600nm, 3800nm, 3900nm, 4100nm and 4300nm was conducted in vitro on Human Breast Cancer (MCF7) and Human Epidermal Melanocytes, which were used in this study as a control. A comprehensive quantitative analysis of the exposed and sham-exposed MCF7 and Human Epidermal Melanocytes cells have been performed by the LDH cytotoxicity test. In addition, qualitative analysis of the effects of the applied irradiation on cancer and normal cells was performed using the light microscopy. The significance of the findings obtained from the cytotoxicity effects measured by the LDH test as well as light microscopy’s results are discussed and compared with the computational predictions. IWBBIO 2013. Proceedings Granada, 18-20 March, 2013 501