Low-Temperature Plasma Jet for Biomedical Applications: A Review

Low-temperature plasma jets launched in room air are unique plasma sources in the sense that they provide a volume of plasma outside the confines of electrodes and gas enclosures. This is an extremely attractive property for medical applications where the target is usually a biological tissue located in normal and unobstructed room conditions. It was discovered that these jets are in fact trains of small volumes of plasma traveling at supersonic velocity. These fast propagating plasma fronts came to be known as plasma bullets. Plasma bullets are vehicles delivering reactive species such reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species to a target under treatment. Here, a review of the biological and medical applications of a plasma jet source termed plasma pencil is presented. The plasma pencil is a device powered by short high-voltage pulses and that can launch plasma bullets in room air, up to several centimeters away from its nozzle. The effects of the plasma pencil on prokaryotic microorganisms (bacteria), pathogenic proteins, epithelial cells, and cancer cells are presented.