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    Combination of Gas Plasma and Radiotherapy Has Immunostimulatory Potential and Additive Toxicity in Murine Melanoma Cells In Vitro
    (Basel : Molecular Diversity Preservation International, 2020) Pasqual-Melo, Gabriella; Sagwal, Sanjeev Kumar; Freund, Eric; Gandhirajan, Rajesh Kumar; Frey, Benjamin; von Woedtke, Thomas; Gaipl, Udo; Bekeschus, Sander
    Despite continuous advances in therapy, malignant melanoma is still among the deadliest types of cancer. At the same time, owing to its high plasticity and immunogenicity, melanoma is regarded as a model tumor entity when testing new treatment approaches. Cold physical plasma is a novel anticancer tool that utilizes a plethora of reactive oxygen species (ROS) being deposited on the target cells and tissues. To test whether plasma treatment would enhance the toxicity of an established antitumor therapy, ionizing radiation, we combined both physical treatment modalities targeting B16F10 murine melanoma cell in vitro. Repeated rather than single radiotherapy, in combination with gas plasma-introduced ROS, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in an additive fashion. In tendency, gas plasma treatment sensitized the cells to subsequent radiotherapy rather than the other way around. This was concomitant with increased levels of TNFa, IL6, and GM-CSF in supernatants. Murine JAWS dendritic cells cultured in these supernatants showed an increased expression of cell surface activation markers, such as MHCII and CD83. For PD-L1 and PD-L2, increased expression was observed. Our results are the first to suggest an additive therapeutic effect of gas plasma and radiotherapy, and translational tumor models are needed to develop this concept further. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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    xCT (SLC7A11) expression confers intrinsic resistance to physical plasma treatment in tumor cells
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier, 2020) Bekeschus, Sander; Eisenmann, Sebastian; Sagwal, Sanjeev Kumar; Bodnar, Yana; Moritz, Juliane; Poschkamp, Broder; Stoffels, Ingo; Emmert, Steffen; Madesh, Muniswamy; Weltmann, Klaus-Dieter; von Woedtke, Thomas; Gandhirajan, Rajesh Kumar
    Cold physical plasma is a partially ionized gas investigated as a new anticancer tool in selectively targeting cancer cells in monotherapy or in combination with therapeutic agents. Here, we investigated the intrinsic resistance mechanisms of tumor cells towards physical plasma treatment. When analyzing the dose-response relationship to cold plasma-derived oxidants in 11 human cancer cell lines, we identified four 'resistant' and seven 'sensitive' cell lines. We observed stable intracellular glutathione levels following plasma treatment only in the 'resistant' cell lines indicative of altered antioxidant mechanisms. Assessment of proteins involved in GSH metabolism revealed cystine-glutamate antiporter xCT (SLC7A11) to be significantly more abundant in the 'resistant' cell lines as compared to 'sensitive' cell lines. This decisive role of xCT was confirmed by pharmacological and genetic inhibition, followed by cold physical plasma treatment. Finally, microscopy analysis of ex vivo plasma-treated human melanoma punch biopsies suggested a correlation between apoptosis and basal xCT protein abundance. Taken together, our results demonstrate that xCT holds the potential as a biomarker predicting the sensitivity of tumor cells towards plasma treatment.