Influence of Powerful Non-Ionizing Terahertz Radiation on Healthy and Tumor Human Cells of Neural Origin

Purpose: Study of the influence of high-power pulses of coherent non-ionizing terahertz (THz) radiation on the formation of foci of double-strand DNA breaks and the proliferative activity of human neuronal cells. Material and methods: Irradiated cell cultures are direct reprogramming neural progenitor cells (drNPCs), neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-BE). Cells are irradiated with a sequence of THz radiation pulses with a peak intensity of ~ 20 GW/cm2 and electric field strength of 2.8 MV/cm. Irradiation lasts 30 mins. Results: There is no statistically significant difference in the number of γH2AX histone foci between experimental and control cell groups. Conclusion: It was shown that a short exposure (30 min) of cells to THz radiation with intensity of 20 GW/cm2 does not affect the proliferative activity of both neural progenitor cells and neuroblastoma cells and does not cause a significant increase in γH2AX foci in any of the studied cell lines.