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
Abstract
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 ( V jet) 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 V jet 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 V jet plasma-treated tumor cells by dendritic cells. Moreover, the V jet 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.