Cancer Inhibiting Properties From Self-Organized Plasma-Liquid Interface: In Vitro Demonstration

Abstract

Self-organization is intrinsic to complex non-living systems; albeit not in such ubiquitous amount, it still plays important role in some physical systems [1]. In this work, we present a novel approach which demonstrates nontrivial cancer-inhibiting capabilities of spontaneous pattern-forming self-organization at the interface between atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma and liquid media. A pronounced cancer depressing activity towards at least two kinds of human cancer cells, namely breast cancer MDAMB-231 and human glioblastoma U87 cancer lines, was demonstrated. After a short treatment at the thinly stratified selforganized plasma-liquid interface pattern, the cancer inhibiting media demonstrate well pronounced depression and apoptosis activities towards tumor cells, not achievable without interfacial stratification of plasma jet to thin (of several μm) current filaments, which therefore play a pivotal (yet still not completely clear) role in building up the cancer inhibition properties. Moreover, thinly stratified, self-organized interfacial discharge is capable to efficiently control the ROS and RNS concentrations in the cancerinhibiting media, and in particular, abnormal ROS/RNS ratios not achievable in discharges which do not form stratified thin-filament patterns could be obtained [2, 3]. These results were explained in terms of interaction of thin plasma filaments of the self-organized pattern with gas and liquid, where the unusual interaction conditions (i.e., high surface-to-volume ratios etc.) cause accumulation of ROS, RNS and other species in unusual ratios and concentrations, thus forming potentially efficient anti-cancer cocktail. Our funding could be extremely important for handling the cancer proliferation problem, and hence, it should be brought to light to attract due attention of the researchers and explore the possible potential of this approach in tackling the challenging problem of high cancer-induced mortality and rising morbidity trends.