Invited Paper PS+BI+SM-TuM5
Plasma Biomedicine and Reactive Species

Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 9:20 am, Room 210A

Low temperature plasma research directed towards biomedical applications such as sterilization, surgery, wound healing and anti-cancer therapy has seen remarkable growth in the last 3-5 years, but the mechanisms responsible for the biomedical effects have remained mysterious. It is known that CAP readily create reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). Other potentially important plasma-generated species effects include charges, fields and photons. ROS and RNS (or RONS), in addition to a suite of other radical and non-radical reactive species, are essential actors in an important sub-field of aerobic biology termed ‘redox’ (or oxidation-reduction) biology. I will review the evidence suggesting that RONS generated by plasmas are responsible for their observed therapeutic effects. In addition, I will present several ideas about the most likely biological response mechanisms that are likely involved in therapeutic plasma biomedicine.