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    Combined toxicity of gas plasma treatment and nanoparticles exposure in melanoma cells in vitro
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Bekeschus, Sander
    Despite continuous advances in therapy, cancer remains a deadly disease. Over the past years, gas plasma technology emerged as a novel tool to target tumors, especially skin. Another promising anticancer approach are nanoparticles. Since combination therapies are becoming increas-ingly relevant in oncology, both gas plasma treatment and nanoparticle exposure were combined. A series of nanoparticles were investigated in parallel, namely, silica, silver, iron oxide, cerium oxide, titanium oxide, and iron-doped titanium oxide. For gas plasma treatment, the atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet kINPen was utilized. Using three melanoma cell lines, the two murine non-metastatic B16F0 and metastatic B16F10 cells and the human metastatic B-Raf mutant cell line SK-MEL-28, the combined cytotoxicity of both approaches was identified. The combined cytotoxicity of gas plasma treatment and nanoparticle exposure was consistent across all three cell lines for silica, silver, iron oxide, and cerium oxide. In contrast, for titanium oxide and iron-doped titanium oxide, significantly combined cytotoxicity was only observed in B16F10 cells.
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    ROS Cocktails as an Adjuvant for Personalized Antitumor Vaccination?
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Clemen, Ramona; Bekeschus, Sander
    Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Today, the critical role of the immune system in tumor control is undisputed. Checkpoint antibody immunotherapy augments existing antitumor T cell activity with durable clinical responses in many tumor entities. Despite the presence of tumor-associated antigens and neoantigens, many patients have an insufficient repertoires of antitumor T cells. Autologous tumor vaccinations aim at alleviating this defect, but clinical success is modest. Loading tumor material into autologous dendritic cells followed by their laboratory expansion and therapeutic vaccination is promising, both conceptually and clinically. However, this process is laborious, time-consuming, costly, and hence less likely to solve the global cancer crisis. Therefore, it is proposed to re-focus on personalized anticancer vaccinations to enhance the immunogenicity of autologous therapeutic tumor vaccines. Recent work re-established the idea of using the alarming agents of the immune system, oxidative modifications, as an intrinsic adjuvant to broaden the antitumor T cell receptor repertoire in cancer patients. The key novelty is the use of gas plasma, a multi-reactive oxygen and nitrogen species-generating technology, for diversifying oxidative protein modifications in a, so far, unparalleled manner. This significant innovation has been successfully used in proof-of-concept studies and awaits broader recognition and implementation to explore its chances and limitations of providing affordable personalized anticancer vaccines in the future. Such multidisciplinary advance is timely, as the current COVID-19 crisis is inexorably reflecting the utmost importance of innovative and effective vaccinations in modern times.