Atmospheric Plasma Meets Cell: Plasma Tailoring by Living Cells

Abstract

The applications of the cold atmospheric plasma jet (CAPJ) in cancer treatment have been investigated for over a decade, focused on the effect that the CAPJ creates on cancer cells. Here we report for the first time on the impact that cells have on the CAPJ during treatment. To better understand these CAPJ–cell interactions, we analyzed the CAPJ behaviors in the presence of several normal and cancer cell lines and investigated the CAPJ selectivity. A more in-depth study of plasma self-organization patterns utilizing a model which contains a combination of normal and cancer cells reveals that the cells’ capacitance can be an important predictor of plasma jet behavior. Cancer cells can direct the jet either toward or away from normal cells, which depends on the boundary condition behind the cell colony. Both experimental and theoretical results show that a grounded copper board beneath the cell-culture dish leads to opposite CPAJ behaviors compared with a floating boundary condition. In conclusion, our findings indicate that plasma can be self-adaptive toward cancer cells, and such a feature can be manipulated. Therefore, using the permittivity difference among cell lines may help us focus plasmas upon cancer cells at the vicinity of normal tissues and maximize the selectivity of plasma treatments.

Cold atmospheric plasma cancer treatment, direct versus indirect approaches

“…This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 source when the CAP jet contacts different cell lines. 130 It is promising that we may see that many new unknows about the biological impact of bulk CAP, such as potential physical effect. 131,132…”

State of the art in nonthermal plasma processing for biomedical applications: Can it help fight viral pandemics like COVID‐19?

“…CAP jets have, for instance, been recently demonstrated to be self‐adaptive toward cancer cells and can be fine‐tuned to maximize selectivity during plasma treatment. [ 201 ] Plasma‐activated medium (PAM) is another interesting new proposition, wherein a CAP‐activated medium, comprising of RNS and ROS, acts as a therapeutic agent with antitumor effects. [ 202 ] A recent study by Bhatt et al [ 203 ] have also shown that novel plasma‐activated solutions (PAS) can be used for antimicrobial efficacy against bloodstream catheter‐associated multidrug‐resistant infections and recurrent episodes of pathogenesis.…”

On the selective killing of cold atmospheric plasma cancer treatment: Status and beyond

“…Normal astrocytes hTERT/E6/E7 and glioblastoma cells U87MG have grown on the negative-x (left) region and the positive-x (right) region, respectively. Permission from Lin et al [138] the CAP-treated medium without and with cells. [140] When the volume of medium was adequately small, cellbased H 2 O 2 generation could reach about 60 μM (Figure 11a).…”