Effective demethylation of melanoma cells using terahertz radiation

Terahertz (THz) demethylation is a photomedical technique applied to dissociate methyl-DNA bonds and reduce global DNA methylation using resonant THz radiation. We evaluated the performance of THz demethylation and investigated the DNA damage caused by THz irradiation. The demethylation rate in M-293T DNA increased linearly with the irradiation power up to 48%. The degree of demethylation increased with exposure to THz radiation, saturating after 10 min. Although THz demethylation occurred globally, most of the demethylation occurred within the partial genes in the CpG islands. Subsequently, we performed THz demethylation of melanoma cells. The degree of methylation in the melanoma cell pellets decreased by approximately 10–15%, inducing ∼5–8 abasic sites per 10⁵ bp; this was considerably less than the damaged DNA irradiated by the high-power infrared laser beam used for generating THz pulses. These results provide initial data for THz demethylation and demonstrate the applicability of this technique in advanced cancer cell research. THz demethylation has the potential to develop into a therapeutic procedure for cancer, similar to that involving chemical demethylating agents.