Plasma-Activated Biogel: A Novel Reactive Oxygen Species Reservoir With Associated Selective Anticancer Effects

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a new therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment with excellent selectivity, but its clinical application has been limited by issues such as the shallow penetration depth of the plasma and the rapid decay of plasma-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here, we propose the use of plasma-activated biogel as a novel anticancer approach that is an alternative to plasma irradiation and plasma-activated solutions. Our data show that He plasma jet irradiation generates a variety of ROS in thermosensitive biogel [(poly-DL-lactide)-(poly-ethylene glycol)-(poly-DL-lactide), PLEL]. These plasma-generated ROS retain the oxidative stress of the plasma-activated PLEL biogel (PAB) for at least seven days and are gradually released into the surrounding solutions during the degradation of PAB. In addition, in vitro data show that PAB also has the advantages of excellent cancer cell selectivity and anticancer activity. Our results reveal that plasma-activated biogel is expected to become a novel anticancer CAP-based approach.