Combined effects of vitamin C and cold atmospheric plasma-conditioned media against glioblastoma via hydrogen peroxide

Gas plasmas technology: from biomolecule redox research to medical therapy

Physical plasma is one consequence of gas ionization, i.e. its dissociation of electrons and ions. If operated in ambient air containing oxygen and nitrogen, its high reactivity produces various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) simultaneously. Technology leap innovations in the early 2010s facilitated the generation of gas plasmas aimed at clinics and operated at body temperature, enabling their potential use in medicine. In parallel, their high potency as antimicrobial agents was systematically discovered. In combination with first successful clinical trials, this led in 2013 to the clinical approval of first medical gas plasma devices in Europe for promoting the healing of chronic and infected wounds and ulcers in dermatology. While since then, thousands of patients have benefited from medical gas plasma therapy, only the appreciation of the critical role of gas plasma-derived RONS led to unraveling first fragments of the mechanistic basics of gas plasma-mediated biomedical effects. However, drawing the complete picture of effectors and effects is still challenging. This is because gas plasma-produced RONS not only show a great variety of dozens of types but also each of them having distinct spatio-temporal concentration profiles due to their specific half-lives and reactivity with other types of RONS as well as different types of (bio) molecules they can react with. However, this makes gas plasmas fascinating and highly versatile tools for biomolecular redox research, especially considering that the technical capacity of increasing and decreasing individual RONS types holds excellent potential for tailoring gas plasmas toward specific applications and disease therapies.

Nanosecond pulsed cold atmospheric plasma jet suppresses proliferation and migration of human glioblastoma cells via apoptosis promotion and EMT inhibition

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and challenging cancers to treat. Despite extensive research on dozens of cancer cells, including GBM, the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on the invasive migration of GBM cells has received limited attention, and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the potential molecular mechanism of ns-CAPJ in inhibiting the invasive migration of human GBM cells. The findings indicate that ns-CAPJ significantly reduces GBM cell invasion and migration, and induces apoptosis in GBM cells. Further mechanistic studies demonstrate a direct correlation between the suppression of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathway and ns-CAPJ's inhibitory effect on GBM cell invasion and migration. Additionally, combined with the N-acetyl cysteine (NAC, a ROS inhibitor) assay, we found that the ROS stimulated by the ns-CAPJ plays an important role in suppressing the EMT process. This work is expected to provide new insight into understanding the molecular mechanisms of how ns-CAPJ inhibits the proliferation and migration of human GBM cells.