EAGER: Plasma-Soft Matter interactions: Towards understanding the effect of nonequilibrium, cold plasma on liquid phase chemical reactions in cells using novel chemical sensors

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1249787FosterPlasma medicine is a new and emerging subfield of healthcare in which ionized gas (plasma) is used for the purpose of therapy and the treatment of disease. Because the ionized gas or plasma is produced at normal atmospheric pressure and room temperature, it can readily be applied to injured or diseased human tissue. The scope of plasma medicine includes 1) sterilization of medical instruments or human tissue?directly addressing ?super bugs? such as flesh eating bacteria 2) wound healing 3) dental care?from tooth cleaning to root canals 4) topical skin treatment 5) anti-fungal therapies 6) treatment of chronic disease such as Crohn?s syndrome 7) management of blood coagulation 8) cosmetic surgery, and even 9) the treatment of cancer. It is clear that plasma medicine holds great potential and new vistas for the field of medicine in general. While the transformational potential of plasmas for therapy and sterilization in the medical field is well documented, a systematic investigation into the effects of plasma irradiation on living tissue has yet to be carried out. Missing is a systematic study that truly elucidates the healing mechanisms. Further it can be argued that lacking are adequate tools necessary to observe and measure the plasma-induced changes within cells (soft matter) directly. This research aims to differentiate between the cause and the effect of plasma exposure on cell chemistry by identifying the plasma species that are incident on and returning from biological tissues treated by plasmas, and characterizing the plasma-driven reactions within the cell itself. It is this plasma-soft matter interaction that is of paramount importance. In this investigation, free-standing, chemistry-sensitive nano-probes injected into the cells under study will be used to investigate and quantify intracellular chemical changes brought on by plasma exposure. Changes in fluorescence signal from the injected nano-probes dispersed within the cell reflect specific changes in internal cell conditions such as pH level, oxygen, or radical concentration. The ionized gas source to be used in this research is a ?cold? plasma jet. The jet is highly collimated and highly directional, making application to the cell substrate relatively straightforward. Internal cell changes will be correlated with plasma conditions, which in turn will be characterized using microwave and optical diagnostics. The proposed methodology is novel and groundbreaking in that it paves the way for real time analysis of the effect of plasma on cell chemistry thereby leading to an understanding of the curative properties of plasmas. This research effort is high payoff in that it has the potential to lay the foundation for a direct assessment of plasma-induced conditions within the cell as a function of plasma exposure time, thereby truly quantifying and ultimately understanding the effect of plasma exposure on the cell. The broader impact of the proposed work is broad in that it investigates a novel approach to assessing effects induced at the intercellular level when living cells are exposed to plasma. The data obtained in this study is expected to provide a basis for understanding the therapeutic effects associated with plasma medicine. The understanding gained from this effort will also be useful in tailoring plasma therapy equipment as the relationship between the plasma generator settings and effects induced at the cellular level will be well quantified. To date, plasma medicine development has been somewhat ?Edisonian? in approach. While in any new and emerging field, this approach can be effective early on, to obtain an understanding of mechanisms involved from a human therapy standpoint, diagnostics are needed to guide the development and provide the foundations for predictive theory. The effort is expected to contribute to the growth and potential mainstreaming of the exciting new field of plasma medicine by providing a direct, near real-time diagnostics for measuring plasma-induced effects within the cell itself. This work contributes to the field of healthcare as it has been demonstrated that plasma medicine among other things clearly enhances wound healing. Outpatient wound treatment is a many-billion dollar field worldwide (20 billion dollars annually in the U.S. alone) addressing those who suffer from chronic wounds (diabetics for example)?nearly 6 million in the US alone.