Analysis of Intracellular Nucleic Acid Damage Induced by Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Irradiation*

In recent years, applications of cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) in life science, medicine, and agriculture have gained increasing interest. It has been reported that plasma irradiation to cancer cells induces apoptosis, a programmed cell death, and is expected to be applied to cancer therapy. Recent progress in the analysis of the cell death mechanism has revealed that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species generated by CAP induces oxidative damage in biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins. Nucleic acid damage is an important indicator in evaluating genotoxicity and carcinogenicity. Therefore, analysis of plasma-induced nucleic acid damage may contribute to elucidating the mechanism of antitumor effects and evaluating the safety of plasma medicine. In this study, we analyzed the damage of intracellular RNA and mitochondrial DNA after plasma irradiation, focusing on 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), one of the representative modified bases. As a result, it was suggested that 8-oxoG was generated in intracellular RNA and mtDNA by CAP treatment of A549 cells.