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

1249787 FosterPlasma医学是一个新兴的医疗保健子领域，其中电离气体（等离子体）用于治疗和治疗疾病。由于电离气体或等离子体是在正常大气压和室温下产生的，因此它可以很容易地应用于受伤或患病的人体组织。 等离子体医学的范围包括1）医疗器械或人体组织的灭菌？直接寻址？超级虫子比如食肉细菌2）伤口愈合3）牙齿护理？从牙齿清洁到根管治疗4）局部皮肤治疗5）抗真菌治疗6）慢性疾病的治疗，如克罗恩病？s综合征7）血液凝固的管理8）美容手术，甚至9）癌症的治疗。很明显，血浆医学具有巨大的潜力和新的前景，为整个医学领域。虽然等离子体在医疗领域的治疗和灭菌的变革潜力是有据可查的，但等离子体辐照对活组织的影响的系统研究尚未进行。缺少的是真正阐明愈合机制的系统研究。此外，可以认为，缺乏足够的工具来直接观察和测量细胞（软物质）内等离子体诱导的变化。 本研究旨在通过识别等离子体处理的生物组织上发生和返回的等离子体种类，并表征细胞内等离子体驱动的反应，来区分等离子体暴露对细胞化学的原因和影响。 正是这种等离子体与软物质的相互作用至关重要。在这项研究中，独立的，化学敏感的纳米探针注射到研究中的细胞将被用来调查和量化细胞内的化学变化所带来的血浆暴露。来自分散在细胞内的注入的纳米探针的荧光信号的变化反映了细胞内部条件如pH水平、氧或自由基浓度的特定变化。在这项研究中使用的电离气体源是一个？冷吗等离子射流 射流是高度准直和高度定向的，使得应用于细胞基底相对简单。内部电池的变化将与等离子体条件相关，而等离子体条件又将使用微波和光学诊断来表征。所提出的方法是新颖的和突破性的，因为它为真实的时间分析等离子体对细胞化学的影响铺平了道路，从而导致对等离子体的治疗性质的理解。这项研究工作是高回报的，因为它有可能为直接评估细胞内等离子体诱导的条件作为等离子体暴露时间的函数奠定基础，从而真正量化并最终了解等离子体暴露对细胞的影响。拟议工作的更广泛影响是广泛的，因为它研究了一种新的方法来评估活细胞暴露于血浆时在细胞间水平诱导的效应。本研究获得的数据有望为了解血浆药物相关的治疗效果提供依据。从这一努力中获得的理解也将有助于定制等离子体治疗设备，因为等离子体发生器设置和在细胞水平上诱导的效应之间的关系将被很好地量化。到目前为止，血浆药物的发展已经有些？爱迪生？正在接近虽然在任何新的和新兴的领域，这种方法可以在早期有效，从人类治疗的角度来了解所涉及的机制，需要诊断来指导发展，并为预测理论提供基础。这项工作预计将有助于血浆医学这一令人兴奋的新领域的发展和潜在的主流化，为测量细胞内等离子体诱导效应提供直接、近实时的诊断。这项工作有助于医疗保健领域，因为它已被证明，除其他事项外，血浆药物明显增强伤口愈合。门诊伤口治疗是全球数十亿美元的领域（仅在美国每年就有200亿美元），用于治疗那些患有慢性伤口的人（例如糖尿病患者）？仅在美国就有近600万人。

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.