Selective anticancer effects of plasma-activated PBS on agarose-constructed 3D tumor spheroids

Abstract Current research on cold atmospheric plasma-activated solutions in cancer therapy has focused on the application of plasma-activated media, neglecting the storage function of plasma-activated phosphate buffers. In this paper, we explored the optimal conditions for the construction of in vitro 3D models with low melting point agarose and investigated the selective anticancer ability of plasma-activated phosphate buffer saline (pPBS) as assessed by the concentrations of H 2 O 2 , and in pPBS. 3D cell spheres were treated using different pPBS incubation times and pPBS ratios, followed by incubation of the cell spheres. The experiments showed that cell cultures with a plasma treatment time of 7 min and 60% (v/v) pPBS had the best selective anticancer ability. We found that pPBS has a stronger ability to preserve active substances than plasma-treated medium (PAM) and is more suitable for clinical medicine.