Applications of atmospheric pressure plasma in microbial inactivation and cancer therapy: a brief review

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure cold plasma, with advantages such as high particle activity, no thermal damage, high efficiency and direct and friendly contact with human tissues, is considered to have great potential in biomedical applications. Therefore, 'plasma medicine' as a new interdiscipline has been developed in the past two decades. This review first briefly describes the development of typical plasma sources suitable for biomedical applications, and those with different discharge forms are simply compared, evaluated and summarized. Subsequently, measurement of the crucial gaseous reactive particles (e.g. OH and O) and their spatio-temporal distributions are introduced. Meanwhile, the generation and variation rules and the related critical macroscopic parameters of the plasma-induced aqueous reactive species are summarized. Finally, related studies in the last ten years on the mechanisms of the plasma-driven microbial inactivation and plasma-induced apoptosis of cancer cells are introduced. Moreover, some scientific problems that need to be urgently solved in the field of plasma medicine are also discussed. This review will provide useful guidance for future related research.

Synergistic effect of cold atmospheric pressure plasma and free or liposomal doxorubicin on melanoma cells

“…The use of cold atmospheric (-pressure) plasmas (CAPs) is increasingly being considered for various biomedical applications such as wound healing and blood coagulation 1 – 3 , sterilization and bacterial susceptibility 4 – 7 , treatment of cancer 6 , 8 , and various other pathologies 9 – 11 .…”

“…With regard to cancer treatment, various strategies using different types of CAPs have recently shown promising effects in cellular tumor models of breast cancer 12 – 14 , cervical cancer 13 – 15 , liver cancer 16 , lung cancer 17 , skin cancer 18 – 22 , and other cancers 6 , 8 . Numerous therapeutic advantages of CAPs over treatments with conventional chemotherapeutic agents have been identified as a result of previous studies, the most important being probably the selective effect of cold plasma on normal and carcinoma cells 22 – 24 .…”

Anticancer Efficacy of Nonthermal Plasma Therapy Combined with PD-L1 Antibody Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…NTP itself works effectively on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells [20], and recently, it has been reported that it has a remission effect when applied clinically [21]. Additionally, previous studies have attempted to create a cooperative anticancer effect on cancer cells by combining GNP with NTP [22][23][24]. As a result, it was confirmed that the cell cycle of cancer cells was stopped, and cell death was induced.…”

A Novel Method for Estimating the Dosage of Cold Atmospheric Plasmas in Plasma Medical Applications

“…Plasma medicine [1] is one of the most widely concerned interdisciplinary fields of cold atmospheric plasmas (CAPs) owing to its great potential in clinical treatment. Up to now, it has been proved that CAPs are efficient in aspects ranging from sterilization [2] and disinfection [3] to wound healing [4,5], skin disease treatment [6], and even cancer therapy [7]. These results show that the CAP treatment can be more effective than the traditional method for certain diseases with few side effects.…”

“…Generally, the CAP sources used in plasma medicine are operated at atmospheric pressure and have gas temperatures close to room temperature, making it feasible and convenient to be applied for the treatment of biological materials such as living tissues, cells, etc. Detailed descriptions and features of various kinds of CAP sources used in plasma medicine can be found in some topical reviews [7,9,10].…”