Cold Atmospheric Plasmas (CAPs) are increasingly used for biomedical applications, their various reactive components must be then better determined. We demonstrate that peroxynitrite (ONOO⁻) is effectively a major reactive species generated by CAPs.

The effectiveness of electrochemotherapy (ECT) in local eradication of tumours in human and veterinary medicine has been proven. ECT consists of increasing the uptake of cytotoxic drugs by means of pulsed electric fields (PEFs) that transiently permeabilise the cell membrane. Still, this tumour treatment includes some drawbacks that are linked to the characteristics of the intense electric pulses (EPs) used. Meanwhile, the emerging field of cancer therapies that are based on the application of non-thermal plasmas (NTP) has recently garnered interest because of their potentialities as rich sources of reactive species. In this work, we investigated the potential capabilities of the combined application of indirect NTP treatment and microsecond PEFs (µsPEFs) to outperform in vitro cell electropermeabilisation, the basis of ECT. Thus, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was plasma-treated (pPBS) and used afterwards to explore the effects of its combination with µsPEFs. Analysis of two different cell lines (DC-3F Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts and malignant B16-F10 murine melanoma cells), by flow cytometry, revealed that this combination resulted in significant increases of the level of cell membrane electropermeabilisation, even at very low electric field amplitude. The B16-F10 cells were more sensitive to the combined treatment than DC-3F cells. Importantly, the percentage of permeabilised cells reached values similar to those of cells exposed to classical electroporation field amplitude (1100 V/cm) when the cells were treated with pPBS before and after being exposed only to very low PEF amplitude (600 V/cm). Although the level of permeabilisation of the cells that are treated by the pPBS and the PEFs at 600 V/cm is lower than the level reached after the exposure to µsPEFs alone at 1100 V/cm, the combined treatment opens the possibility to reduce the amplitude of the EPs used in ECT, potentially allowing for a novel ECT with reduced side-effects.

Plasma chemistry at atmospheric pressure and low temperature has met an increased interest due to the effective production of reactive species (mainly reactive nitrogen species and reactive oxygen species) which are demanded in many applications like in biomedicine. Τhe generation of such emissive reactive species is herein studied. A single parameter, i.e., the gas composition, is tuned and abundant chemical species are obtained in a quite controllable manner. The system refers to a small dielectric barrier discharge based reactor fed with He–N₂/O₂ or Ar–N₂/O₂ gases, which provides plasma in the form of “guided streamers.” The plasma is sustained by positive high voltage pulses, and the emissive transitions versus the gas composition is determined by UV-VIS optical emission spectroscopy. The relative intensities of emissive species are recorded in the ambient air where the streamers propagate. The evolution of dominant species as a function of the gas composition is mapped, and optimal conditions in terms of species production are clearly revealed. The results show that additives do not necessarily enhance the density of all species, implying the need for plasma chemistry optimization in respect to every application. The study is extended inside the reactor, supporting the above statements. Finally, the rotational and vibrational distributions of critical probe molecules are recorded, testing the dependence of the gas temperature and energy transfer, respectively, on the gas composition.

The understanding of plasma–liquid interactions is of major importance, not only in physical chemistry, chemical engineering and polymer science, but in biomedicine as well as to better control the biological processes induced on/in biological samples by Cold Atmospheric Plasmas (CAPs). Moreover, plasma–air interactions have to be particularly considered since these CAPs propagate in the ambient air. Herein, we developed a helium-based CAP setup equipped with a shielding-gas device, which allows the control of plasma–air interactions. Thanks to this device, we obtained specific diffuse CAPs, with the ability to propagate along several centimetres in the ambient air at atmospheric pressure. Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) measurements were performed on these CAPs during their interaction with a liquid medium (phosphate-buffered saline PBS 10 mM, pH 7.4) giving valuable information about the induced chemistry as a function of the shielding gas composition (variable O₂/(O₂ + N₂) ratio). Several excited species were detected including N₂ ⁺(First Negative System, FNS), N₂(Second Positive System, SPS) and HO˙ radical. The ratios between nitrogen/oxygen excited species strongly depend on the O₂/(O₂ + N₂) ratio. The liquid chemistry developed after CAP treatment was investigated by combining electrochemical and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy methods. We detected and quantified stable oxygen and nitrogen species (H₂O₂, NO₂ ⁻, NO₃ ⁻) along with Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS) such as the peroxynitrite anion ONOO⁻. It appears that the RNS/ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) ratio in the treated liquid depends also on the shielding gas composition. Eventually, the composition of the surrounding environment of CAPs seems to be crucial for the induced plasma chemistry and consequently, for the liquid chemistry. All these results demonstrate clearly that for physical, chemical and biomedical applications, which are usually achieved in ambient air environments, it is necessary to realize an effective control of plasma–air interactions.

The plasma produced due to streamers guided by a dielectric tube and a helium jet in atmospheric air is herein studied electrically and optically. Helium streamers are produced inside the dielectric tube of a coaxial dielectric-barrier discharge and, upon exiting the tube, they propagate into the helium jet in air. The axisymmetric velocity field of the neutral helium gas while it penetrates the air is approximated with the PISO algorithm. At the present working conditions, turbulence helium flow is avoided. The system is driven by sinusoidal high voltage of variable amplitude (0–11 kV peak-to-peak) and frequency (5–20 kHz). It is clearly shown that a prerequisite for streamer development is a continuous flow of helium, independently of the sustainment or not of the dielectric-barrier discharge. A parametric study is carried out by scanning the range of the operating parameters of the system and the optimal operational window for the longest propagation path of the streamers in air is determined. For this optimum, the streamer current impulses and the spatiotemporal progress of the streamer UV-visible emission are recorded. The streamer mean propagation velocity is as well measured. The formation of copious reactive emissive species is then considered (in terms of intensity and rotational temperatures), and their evolution along the streamer propagation path is mapped. The main claims of the present work contribute to the better understanding of the physicochemical features of similar systems that are currently applied to various interdisciplinary engineering fields, including biomedicine and material processing.