1 research outputs found
Plasma Treated Water Solutions in Cancer Treatments: The Contrasting Role of RNS
Abstract: Plasma Treated Water Solutions (PTWS) recently emerged as a novel tool for the
generation of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (ROS and RNS) in liquids. The presence of
ROS with a strong oxidative power, like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), has been proposed as the main
effector for the cancerâkilling properties of PTWS. A protective role has been postulated for RNS,
with nitric oxide (NO) being involved in the activation of antioxidant responses and cell survival.
However, recent evidences proved that NOâderivatives in proper mixtures with ROS in PTWS
could enhance rather than reduce the selectivity of PTWSâinduced cancer cell death through the
inhibition of specific antioxidant cancer defenses. In this paper we discuss the formation of RNS in
different liquids with a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), to show that NO is absent in PTWS of
complex composition like plasma treated (PT)âcell culture media used for in vitro experiments, as
well as its supposed protective role. Nitrite anions (NO2â) instead, present in our PTWS, were found
to improve the selective death of Saos2 cancer cells compared to EA.hy926 cells by decreasing the
cytotoxic threshold of H2O2 to nonâtoxic values for the endothelial cell line