Plasma poration: Transdermal electric fields, conduction currents, and reactive species transport

Improvement of transdermal absorption rate by nonthermal biocompatible atmospheric pressure plasma

Nonthermal biocompatible plasma (NBP) is a promising option for improving medication absorption into the human skin. Currently, most plasma devices for cosmetics employ a floating-electrode plasma source for treating the skin. Human skin serves as the ground electrode in the floating-electrode plasma discharge, and discharge occurs between the skin and electrodes of the device. In this in vitro study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of NBP on the skin permeation of niacinamide. We have quantified the transdermal absorption rates of niacinamide in both untreated skin and skin treated with NBP for a duration of 10 s. The absorption of niacinamide for both without and with NBP treatment was observed until 12 h incubation time. Without plasma treatment, the human skin exhibited stable and low transdermal absorption of niacinamide up to 12 h. However, the NBP treatment significantly increased the transdermal absorption of niacinamide from 0.5 h to 6 h and continuously increased skin penetration over a duration of more than 12 h incubation period. The obtained results suggest that NBP-treated human skin showed a 60-fold higher penetration rate than non-treated skin. The increased penetration rate of niacinamide can be mainly attributed to plasmaporation subsequent to NBP treatment. The findings of this study demonstrate that NBP treatment results in remarkable skin permeability, making it a promising candidate for both cosmetic and pharmaceutical delivery applications.

Effects of cold atmospheric-pressure plasma in combination with doxorubicin drug against breast cancer cells in vitro and invivo

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been suggested for medical applications that can be applied indirectly through plasma-activated medium (PAM) and recently it has been introduced as an innovative therapeutic approach for all cancer types. Studies have exhibited that ROS/RNS are key factors in CAP-dependent apoptosis; nevertheless, ROS/RNS stability are weak. Combination therapy is considered an effective strategy to overcome these problems. In the present research, we revealed that the combination of CAP and doxorubicin (DOX) significantly induces the apoptosis of breast cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Our results indicated that both Ar and He/O2 CAP treatment as well as DOX drug alone reduced cell growth. CAP/PAM treatment in combination with DOX induced apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells and 4T1-implanted BALB/c mice, resulting in a significant increase in antitumor activity. The apoptotic effects of CAP-DOX on MCF-7 cells were inferred from altered expression of BAX and cleaved-caspase-3 which mechanistically take place through the mitochondrial pathway mediated by Bcl-2 family members. Besides, the BAX/BCL-2 ratio is significantly higher in the simultaneous treatment of CAP and DOX. This ratio was equal to 2.82 ± 0.24, 2.54 ± 0.30, and 11.27 ± 0.31 for treatment with DOX, He/O2 plasma, and combination treatment, respectively. Additionally, the tumor growth rate of He/O2-PAM + DOX and Ar-PAM + DOX treatments was significantly inhibited by PAM-injection, and the tumor growth rate of PAM alone or DOX alone was slightly reduced. It can be concluded that the effect of PAM + DOX may increase the anticancer activity and decrease the dose required for the chemotherapeutic treatment.

How living cells are affected during the cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment

When the electric discharge process is limited by high voltage electrodes shielding, the ionization measure would be controlled to less than one percent and the temperature to less than 37 °C even at atmospheric pressure, so-called cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP). CAP has been found to have profound medical applications in association with its reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). In this way that during plasma exposure, the subjected medium (e.g. cell cytoplasmic membrane in plasma therapy) interacts with ROS/RNS. Accordingly, a precise study of the mentioned interactions and their consequences on the cells' behavior changes, is necessary. The results lead to the reduction of possible risks and provide the opportunity of optimizing the efficacy of CAP before the development of CAP applications in the field of plasma medicine. In this report molecular dynamic (MD) simulation is used to investigate the mentioned interactions and a proper and compatible comparison with the experimental results is presented. Based on this, the effects of H2O2, NO and O2 on the living cell's membrane are investigated in biological conditions. Our results show that: i) The hydration of phospholipid polar heads would be enhanced associated with the H2O2 presence. ii) A new definition of the surface area assigned to each phospholipid (APL), more reliable and compatible with the physical expectations, is introduced. iii) The long-term behavior of NO and O2 is their penetration into the lipid bilayer and sometimes passing through the membrane into the cell. The latter would be an indication of internal cells' pathways activation leading to modification of cells' function.