59th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Volume 62, Number 12
Monday–Friday, October 23–27, 2017;
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Session GI2: Pedestal and Low-Temperature Physics
9:30 AM–12:30 PM,
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Room: 102ABC
Chair: Venkattraman Ayyaswamy, University of California, Merced
Abstract ID: BAPS.2017.DPP.GI2.4
Abstract: GI2.00004 : Adaptive plasma for cancer therapy: physics, mechanism and applications*
11:00 AM–11:30 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Michael Keidar
(George Washington University)
One of the most promising applications of cold atmospheric plasma
(CAP) is the cancer therapy. The uniqueness of plasma is in its ability to
change composition in situ. Plasma self-organization could lead to formation
of coherent plasma structures. These coherent structures tend to modulate
plasma chemistry and composition, including reactive species, the electric
field and charged particles. Formation of coherent plasma structures allows
the plasma to adapt to external boundary conditions, such as different cells
types and their contextual tissues. In this talk we will explore
possibilities and opportunities that the adaptive plasma therapeutic system
might offer. We shall define such an adaptive system as a plasma device that
is able to adjust the plasma composition to obtain optimal desirable
outcomes through its interaction with cells and tissues. The efficacy of
cold plasma in a pre-clinical model of various cancer types such as lung,
bladder, breast, head, neck, brain and skin has been demonstrated. Both
\textit{in-vitro} and \textit{in-vivo} studies revealed that cold plasmas selectively kill cancer cells.
Recently mechanism of plasma selectivity based on aquaporin hypothesis has
been proposed. Aquaporins (AQPs) are the confirmed membrane channels of
H$_{\mathrm{2}}$O$_{\mathrm{2}}$ and other large molecules. We have
demonstrated that the anti-cancer capacity of plasma could be inhibited by
silencing the expression of AQPs. Additional possible cell feedback
mechanism was recently discovered. It is associated with production of
reactive species during direct CAP treatment by cancer cells. Selective
production of hydrogen peroxide by different cells can lead to adaptation of
chemistry at the plasma-cell interface based on the cellular input. In
particular we have found that the discharge voltage is an important factor
affecting the ratio of reactive oxygen species to reactive nitrogen species
in the gas phase and this correlates well with effect of hydrogen peroxide
production by cells.
*This work was supported by a National Science Foundation, Grant No. 1465061
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2017.DPP.GI2.4