Rotating Magnetic Fields Inhibit Mitochondrial Respiration, Promote Oxidative Stress and Produce Loss of Mitochondrial Integrity in Cancer Cells

Abstract

Electromagnetic fields (EMF) raise intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can be toxic to cancer cells. Because weak magnetic fields influence spin state pairing in redox-active radical electron pairs, we hypothesize that they disrupt electron flow in the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC). We tested this hypothesis by studying the effects of oscillating magnetic fields (sOMF) produced by a new noninvasive device involving permanent magnets spinning with specific frequency and timing patterns. We studied the effects of sOMF on ETC by measuring the consumption of oxygen (O2) by isolated rat liver mitochondria, normal human astrocytes, and several patient derived brain tumor cells, and O2 generation/consumption by plant cells with an O2 electrode. We also investigated glucose metabolism in tumor cells using 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance and assessed mitochondrial alterations leading to cell death by using fluorescence microscopy with MitoTracker™ and a fluorescent probe for Caspase 3 activation. We show that sOMF of appropriate field strength, frequency, and on/off profiles completely arrest electron transport in isolated, respiring, rat liver mitochondria and patient derived glioblastoma (GBM), meningioma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) cells and can induce loss of mitochondrial integrity. These changes correlate with a decrease in mitochondrial carbon flux in cancer cells and with cancer cell death even in the non-dividing phase of the cell cycle. Our findings suggest that rotating magnetic fields could be therapeutically efficacious in brain cancers such as GBM and DIPG through selective disruption of the electron flow in immobile ETC complexes.

The effects of rotating magnetic field and antiseptic on in vitro pathogenic biofilm and its milieu

“…As shown by Hong et al (1995), the effects of such magnetic induction concentrate on the cellular walls/membranes, due to the shielding effect mostly 53 . Such a statement is coherent not only with the data presented in the current work (showing disturbances in the bacterial cell walls as a result of the RMF exposure) but also with the results shown recently by Sharpe et al (2021), who reported the damage of mitochondrial membranes in cancer cells exposed to the RMF 54 . It should be underlined that process of biofilm matrix formation is facilitated to a major extent by specialized protein systems localized throughout the bacterial cell walls and membranes 55 .…”

The use of NADH anisotropy to investigate mitochondrial cristae alignment

“…It is now clear that electromagnetic fields, such as from rotating magnets, can profoundly influence mitochondrial function, for instance, as an approach to kill cancer cells 53 , or at low intensities (10 µT) and low frequency (1–8 Hz) to induce mitophagy and rejuvenate mitochondrial function 54 . Other data also suggest that prolonged EMF can enhance cardiac and osteogenic mitochondrial function—the proposed mechanism involving a mild production of ROS and possibly complex I involvement 55 , 56 .…”

EMEMI: An interference‐free mini‐incubator with integrated electric and magnetic field exposure for real‐time microscopic imaging of field effects

“…An important feature has been to eliminate electromagnetic interference from heating or control functions. This is important for the following reasons: (1) electric fields as low as several millivolts per meter have been found to have biological effects on cellular behavior (Yamashita, 2015) and (2) Magnetic fields on the order of several microteslas have been found to affect cell behavior (Sharpe et al, 2021), also through the well-known ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) phenomena. A simple heating element embedded T A B L E 4 Temperature analysis in some components of mini-incubator when electric and magnetic fields are applied for 1 h. around a culture dish can produce a magnetic field comparable to ten microteslas by simple textbook calculations.…”