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Author: Pasqual-Melo, Gabriella × Subject: Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species ×

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Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Plasma treatment limits cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma development in vitro and in vivo
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Pasqual-Melo, Gabriella; Nascimento, Thiago; Sanches, Larissa Juliani; Blegniski, Fernanda Paschoal; Bianchi, Julya Karen; Sagwal, Sanjeev Kumar; Berner, Julia; Schmidt, Anke; Emmert, Steffen; Weltmann, Klaus-Dieter; Woedtke, Thomas von; Gandhirajan, Rajesh Kumar; Cecchini, Alessandra Lourenço; Bekeschus, Sander
    Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most prevalent cancer worldwide, increasing the cost of healthcare services and with a high rate of morbidity. Its etiology is linked to chronic ultraviolet (UV) exposure that leads to malignant transformation of keratinocytes. Invasive growth and metastasis are severe consequences of this process. Therapy-resistant and highly aggressive SCC is frequently fatal, exemplifying the need for novel treatment strategies. Cold physical plasma is a partially ionized gas, expelling therapeutic doses of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that were investigated for their anticancer capacity against SCC in vitro and SCC-like lesions in vivo. Using the kINPen argon plasma jet, a selective growth-reducing action of plasma treatment was identified in two SCC cell lines in 2D and 3D cultures. In vivo, plasma treatment limited the progression of UVB-induced SSC-like skin lesions and dermal degeneration without compromising lesional or non-lesional skin. In lesional tissue, this was associated with a decrease in cell proliferation and the antioxidant transcription factor Nrf2 following plasma treatment, while catalase expression was increased. Analysis of skin adjacent to the lesions and determination of global antioxidant parameters confirmed the local but not systemic action of the plasma anticancer therapy in vivo. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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    Targeting malignant melanoma with physical plasmas
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier, 2018) Pasqual-Melo, Gabriella; Gandhirajan, Rajesh Kumar; Stoffels, Ingo; Bekeschus, Sander
    Melanoma is the deadliest form of cutaneous neoplasia. With a five-year survival rate of only 5–19%, metastatic melanoma presents severe challenges in clinical therapies. In addition, palliation is often problematic due to large numbers of fast growing metastasis. This calls for new therapeutic avenues targeting highly aggressive melanoma in palliative patients. One recently suggested innovative approach for eradication of topical tumor lesions is the application of cold physical plasma. This partially ionized gas emits a cocktail of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). ROS/RNS have been shown to be a double-edged sword in fueling cancer growth at low doses but abrogating it at higher doses. The ROS/RNS output of plasma devices is tunable, and many studies have successfully decreased cancer cell growth in vitro and tumor burden in vivo. In general, increasing numbers of clinical trials suggest combination therapies to outperform monotherapies with regard to prognosis in patients. This review describes current challenges in melanoma treatment and highlights the concept of plasma therapy in experimental studies performed in melanoma research. Future perspectives are given that combine the usage of physical plasma with e.g. chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and ionizing radiation in melanoma medical oncology.