Method for noninvasive whole-body stimulation with spinning oscillating magnetic fields and its safety in mice

ABSTRACT

We recently reported shrinkage of untreatable recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) in an end-stage patient using noninvasive brain stimulation with a spinning oscillating magnetic field (sOMF)-generating device called the Oncomagnetic device. Our in vitro experiments demonstrated selective cancer cell death while sparing normal cells by sOMF-induced increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels due to magnetic perturbation of mitochondrial electron transport. Here, we describe the results of an in vivo study assessing the toxicity of chronic sOMF stimulation in mice using a newly constructed apparatus comprised of the sOMF-generating active components of the Oncomagnetic device. We chronically stimulated 10 normal 60-day old female C57BL/6 mice in their housing cages for 2 h 3 times a day, as in the patient treatment protocol, over 4 months. We also studied the effects of 2-h acute sOMF stimulation. Our observations and those of blinded independent veterinary staff observers, indicated no significant adverse effects of chronic or acute sOMF stimulation on the health, behavior, electrocardiographic and electroencephalographic activities, hematologic profile, and brain and other tissue and organ morphology of treated mice compared to age-matched untreated control mice. These findings suggest that short- and long-term therapies with the Oncomagnetic device are safe and well tolerated.

KEYWORDS:

• Magnetic stimulation
• rotating permanent magnets
• toxicity
• anticancer treatment

Acknowledgments

We thank Alvin Saldon of the Houston Methodist Magnetic Stimulation Device Core for assistance with construction of the apparatus used in this study.

Disclosure statement

SAH and DSB are listed as inventors of the device used in this study on U.S. and international patent applications filed by Houston Methodist Hospital. The other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study are available on request from the corresponding author SAH.

Statement of ethics

Mice used in this study received humane care according to the criteria outlined in the ‘Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals prepared by the National Academy of Sciences and published by the National Institutes of Health and 2013 Declaration of Helsinki for research. The study was approved by the Houston Methodist Research Institute Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocol Number IS00006593).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Translational Research Initiative of the Houston Methodist Research Institute to SAH and DSB; Funding from Kenneth R. Peak Foundation, John S. Dunn Foundation., Taub Foundation, Blanche Green Fund of the Pauline Sterne Wolff Memorial Foundation, Kelly Kicking Cancer Foundation, the Methodist Hospital Foundation, Veralan Foundation, and many contributions in honor of Will McKone, Lance Mobley, and Edward Miles to DSB.