Degradation of adhesion molecules of G361 melanoma cells by a non-thermal atmospheric pressure microplasma

Increased expression of integrins and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is important for the survival, growth and metastasis of melanoma cells. Based on this well-established observation in oncology, we propose to use degradation of integrin and FAK proteins as a potential strategy for melanoma cancer therapy. A low-temperature radio-frequency atmospheric microplasma jet is used to study their effects on the adhesion molecules of G361 melanoma cells. Microplasma treatment is shown to (1) cause significant cell detachment from the bottom of microtiter plates coated with collagen, (2) induce the death of human melanoma cells, (3) inhibit the expression of integrin α₂, integrin α₄ and FAK on the cell surface and finally (4) change well-stretched actin filaments to a diffuse pattern. These results suggest that cold atmospheric pressure plasmas can strongly inhibit the adhesion of melanoma cells by reducing the activities of adhesion proteins such as integrins and FAK, key biomolecules that are known to be important in malignant transformation and acquisition of metastatic phenotypes.