Scientific Reports (Jan 2021)

Tumor cytotoxicity and immunogenicity of a novel V-jet neon plasma source compared to the kINPen

  • Lea Miebach,
  • Eric Freund,
  • Stefan Horn,
  • Felix Niessner,
  • Sanjeev Kumar Sagwal,
  • Thomas von Woedtke,
  • Steffen Emmert,
  • Klaus-Dieter Weltmann,
  • Ramona Clemen,
  • Anke Schmidt,
  • Torsten Gerling,
  • Sander Bekeschus

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80512-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Abstract Recent research indicated the potential of cold physical plasma in cancer therapy. The plethora of plasma-derived reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) mediate diverse antitumor effects after eliciting oxidative stress in cancer cells. We aimed at exploiting this principle using a newly designed dual-jet neon plasma source (Vjet) to treat colorectal cancer cells. A treatment time-dependent ROS/RNS generation induced oxidation, growth retardation, and cell death within 3D tumor spheroids were found. In TUM-CAM, a semi in vivo model, the Vjet markedly reduced vascularized tumors' growth, but an increase of tumor cell immunogenicity or uptake by dendritic cells was not observed. By comparison, the argon-driven single jet kINPen, known to mediate anticancer effects in vitro, in vivo, and in patients, generated less ROS/RNS and terminal cell death in spheroids. In the TUM-CAM model, however, the kINPen was equivalently effective and induced a stronger expression of immunogenic cancer cell death (ICD) markers, leading to increased phagocytosis of kINPen but not Vjet plasma-treated tumor cells by dendritic cells. Moreover, the Vjet was characterized according to the requirements of the DIN-SPEC 91315. Our results highlight the plasma device-specific action on cancer cells for evaluating optimal discharges for plasma cancer treatment.