Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics and collaborators have discovered that terahertz radiation, contradicting conventional belief, can disrupt proteins in living cells without killing the cells.

This finding implies that terahertz radiation, which was long considered impractical to use, may have applications in manipulating cell functions for the treatment of cancer, for example, but also that there may be safety issues to consider.

The research group from RAP recently discovered that the energy from the light cold enter into water as a “shockwave.” Considering this, the group decided to investigate whether terahertz light could also have an effect like this on tissue.

Using fluorescence microscopy, they looked at the effect of terahertz radiation on the growth of chains in an aqueous solution of actin, and found that it led to a decrease in filaments.

However, there was no sign that the radiation caused cells to die?

According to Shota Yamazaki, the first author of the study, published in Scientific Reports, “It was quite interesting for us to see that terahertz radiation can have an effect on proteins inside cells without killing them cells themselves?

Reference: 2 June 2020, Scientific Reports.

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