The Biophysics of Cold Plasmas in Cancer Therapy

低温大气压等离子体在室温下引发高度反应的化学反应，能够影响敏感的生物系统。例如，等离子体引发的肿瘤消退的研究结果表明，冷等离子体在癌症治疗中具有潜力。到目前为止，人们对等离子体与生物的各种相互作用过程知之甚少，甚至完全不了解。这项名为BioCaT的拟议计划的目的是通过使用生物物理和聚合物模型系统作为活组织的模型系统来揭示和定制血浆反应性的影响。通过一种新的基于物理的方法，BioCaT将首次在等离子体-生物相互作用中定制等离子体反应性。 我们采取这种方法的动机是最近的氧化还原生物学研究，这些研究表明，稳定的单线态氧1O2在选择性癌细胞死亡中的重要性：单线态氧使细胞膜相关酶失活，导致雪崩样过程，导致细胞死亡。氧气是空气中冷等离子体的关键成分。 BioCaT将揭示等离子体-液体-系统中控制组成反应物种组成的基本动力学过程：目前的经验等离子体应用需要被基于知识的、有针对性的等离子体反应性所取代。有了新的诊断概念，活性物质在空间和时间上的密度梯度将在气相、等离子体和液体中确定。将定量单次激发技术应用于冷等离子体的湍流反应流，将首次使人们能够识别瞬变反应动力学。基于反应动力学模型的方法将被采用，以便具体地影响导致10O2产生和传输到介导等离子体效应的液体界面的那些物理参数。 第一次，血浆对酶活性的影响将在用聚合物基质或脂质体细胞模型空间固定的酶上进行研究。这将使我们能够了解等离子体效应在活体中的进展，例如，它如何影响人类细胞。 因此，通过一个跨学科的研究团队，BioCaT将建立所需的知识库，为选择性细胞治疗量身定做冷大气压等离子体。这项研究成果有望在等离子体医学研究方面取得突破，并为低温大气压等离子体的成功临床应用开辟道路。

Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas initiate highly reactive chemistry at room temperature, able to influence sensitive biological systems. For example, findings of plasma-initiated tumor regression show the potential of cold plasmas in cancer care. Until now, the various interaction processes of plasma with living organisms are very poorly to not at all understood. The aim of this proposed program, BioCaT, is to reveal and tailor the effect of plasma reactivity by using biophysical and polymeric model systems as model systems for living tissue. With a novel physics-based approach, BioCaT will for the first time tailor the plasma reactivity in plasma-bio-interaction. Motivation for our approach are recent redox biology studies that show the importance of metastable singlet oxygen 1O2 in selective cancer cell death: Singlet oxygen inactivates cell membrane-associated enzymes, leading to avalanche-like processes that result in cell death. 1O2 is a key component of cold plasmas in air. BioCaT will reveal the fundamental kinetic processes in plasma-liquid-systems to control the composition of constituent reactive species: Current empirical plasma application needs to be replaced by knowledge-based, targeted plasma reactivity. With new diagnostic concepts, density gradients of reactive species in space and time will be determined in gas-, plasma- and liquid-phases. Applying quantitative single-shot techniques to turbulent reactive flow of cold plasmas will, for the first time, allow one to identify transient reaction kinetics. The reaction kinetics model-based approach will be adapted so as to specifically influence those physical parameters that lead to generation and transport of 1O2, to the liquid interface that mediates the plasma effect. For the first time, the effect of plasma on enzyme activity will be studied on hand of enzymes that will be spatially immobilized by a polymer matrix or by liposome cell models. This will allow us to understand the progression of plasma effects in living organisms, for example, how it affects human cells. With an interdisciplinary researcher team, BioCaT will thus build the knowledge-base required to tailor cold atmospheric pressure plasmas for selective cell treatment. The research results are anticipated to yield breakthroughs in plasma-medical research and to open the way for successful clinical use of cold atmospheric pressure plasmas.