1. Non‐thermal atmospheric plasma treatment of onychomycosis in an in vitro human nail model
- Author
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Raj K. Tiwari, Marc Zemel, Dionysios Liveris, Sarnath Singh, Jan Geliebter, Gary Friedman, Jeffry M. Bulson, Sin Park, and Irina L. Derkatch
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Plasma Gases ,030106 microbiology ,C. albicans ,Dermatology ,cold atmospheric plasma ,dielectric barrier discharge ,In vitro model ,Trichophyton mentagrophytes ,030207 dermatology & venereal diseases ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Tinea ,Trichophyton ,Candida albicans ,Onychomycosis ,Cadaver ,Confidence Intervals ,medicine ,Non thermal atmospheric plasma ,Humans ,pulsed electric field ,Foot Dermatoses ,Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ,biology ,business.industry ,fungus ,Candidiasis ,Original Articles ,General Medicine ,Nail plate ,biology.organism_classification ,In vitro ,Infectious Diseases ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,non‐thermal atmospheric plasma ,Nail (anatomy) ,Original Article ,business - Abstract
Background Onychomycosis affects almost 6% of the world population. Topical azoles and systemic antifungal agents are of low efficacy and can have undesirable side effects. An effective, non-invasive therapy for onychomycosis is an unmet clinical need. Objective Determine the efficacy threshold of non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP) to treat onychomycosis in an in vitro model. Methods A novel toe/nail-plate model using cadaver nails and agarose media inoculated with Candida albicans was exposed to a range of NTAP doses. Results Direct exposure of C albicans and Trichophyton mentagrophytes to 12 minutes of NTAP results in complete killing at doses of 39 and 15 kPulses, respectively. Onset of reduced viability of C albicans to NTAP treatment through the nail plate occurs at 64 kPulses with 10× and 100× reduction at 212 and 550 kPulses, respectively. Conclusions NTAP is an effective, non-invasive therapeutic approach to onychomycosis that should be evaluated in a clinical setting.
- Published
- 2019