Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) treatment increased reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) levels in tumor samples obtained from patients with low-grade glioma.

Low-grade gliomas (LGGs) are a heterogeneous group of tumors with an average 10-year survival rate of 40%-55%. Current treatment options include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and gross total resection (GTR) of the tumor. The extent of resection (EOR) plays an important role in improving surgical outcomes. However, the major obstacle in treating low-grade gliomas is their diffused nature and the presence of residual cancer cells at the tumor margins post resection. Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) has shown to be effective in targeted killing of tumor cells in various glioma cell lines without affecting non-tumor cells through Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (RONS). However, no study on the effectiveness of CAP has been carried out in LGG tissues till date. In this study, we applied helium-based CAP on tumor tissues resected from LGG patients. Our results show that CAP is effective in promoting RONS accumulation in LGG tissues when CAP jet parameters are set at 4 kV voltage, 5 min treatment time and 3 lpm gas flow rate. We also observed that CAP jet is more effective in thinner slice preparations of tumor as compared to thick tumor samples. Our results indicate that CAP could prove to be an effective adjunct therapy in glioma surgery to target residual cancer cells to improve surgical outcome of patients with low-grade glioma.

Emerging Advanced Technologies Developed by IPR for Bio Medical Applications ­.A Review.

Over the last decade, research has intensified worldwide on the use of low-temperature plasmas in medicine and healthcare. Researchers have discovered many methods of applying plasmas to living tissues to deactivate pathogens; to end the flow of blood without damaging healthy tissue; to sanitize wounds and accelerate its healing; and to selectively kill malignant cancer cells. This review paper presents the latest development of advanced and plasma-based technologies used for applications in neurology in particular. Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an aided institute of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has also developed various technologies in some of these areas. One of these is an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet (APPJ). This device is being studied to treat skin diseases, for coagulation of blood at faster rates and its interaction with oral, lung, and brain cancer cells. In certain cases, in-vitro studies have yielded encouraging results and limited in-vivo studies have been initiated. Plasma activated water has been produced in the laboratory for microbial disinfection, with potential applications in the health sector. Recently, plasmonic nanoparticle arrays which allow detection of very low concentrations of chemicals is studied in detail to allow early-stage detection of diseases. IPR has also been developing AI-based software called DeepCXR and AIBacilli for automated, high-speed screening and detection of footprints of tuberculosis (TB) in Chest X-ray images and for recognizing single/multiple TB bacilli in sputum smear test images, respectively. Deep Learning systems are increasingly being used around the world for analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for emotion recognition, mental workload, and seizure detection.

Phase formation in selected surface-roughened plasma-nitrided 304 austenite stainless steel.

Direct current (DC) glow discharge plasma nitriding was carried out on three selected surface-roughened AISI 304 stainless steel samples at 833 K under 4 mbar pressures for 24 h in the presence of N2:H2 gas mixtures of 50 : 50 ratios. After plasma nitriding, the phase formation, case depth, surface roughness, and microhardness of a plasma-nitrided layer were evaluated by glancing angle x-ray diffractogram, optical microscope, stylus profilometer, and Vickers microhardness tester techniques. The case depth, surface hardness, and phase formation variations were observed with a variation in initial surface roughness. The diffraction patterns of the plasma-nitrided samples showed the modified intensities of the α and γ phases along with those of the CrN, Fe4N, and Fe3N phases. Hardness and case depth variations were observed with a variation in surface roughness. A maximum hardness of 1058 Hv and a case depth of 95 µm were achieved in least surface-roughened samples.

Nano- and micro-tribological behaviours of plasma nitrided Ti6Al4V alloys.

Plasma nitriding of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy (TA) sample was carried out in a plasma reactor with a hot wall vacuum chamber. For ease of comparison these plasma nitrided samples were termed as TAPN. The TA and TAPN samples were characterized by XRD, Optical microscopy, FESEM, TEM, EDX, AFM, nanoindentation, micro scratch, nanotribology, sliding wear resistance evaluation and in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation techniques. The experimental results confirmed that the nanohardness, Young's modulus, micro scratch wear resistance, nanowear resistance, sliding wear resistance of the TAPN samples were much better than those of the TA samples. Further, when the data are normalized with respect to those of the TA alloy, the TAPN sample showed cell viability about 11% higher than that of the TA alloy used in the present work. This happened due to the formation of a surface hardened embedded nitrided metallic alloy layer zone (ENMALZ) having a finer microstructure characterized by presence of hard ceramic Ti2N, TiN etc. phases in the TAPN samples, which could find enhanced application as a bioimplant material.

Nanotribological response of a plasma nitrided bio-steel.

AISI 316L is a well known biocompatible, austenitic stainless steel (SS). It is thus a bio-steel. Considering its importance as a bio-prosthesis material here we report the plasma nitriding of AISI 316L (SS) followed by its microstructural and nanotribological characterization. Plasma nitriding of the SS samples was carried out in a plasma reactor with a hot wall vacuum chamber. For ease of comparison these plasma nitrided samples were termed as SSPN. The experimental results confirmed the formations of an embedded nitrided metal layer zone (ENMLZ) and an interface zone (IZ) between the ENMLZ and the unnitrided bulk metallic layer zone (BMLZ) in the SSPN sample. These ENMLZ and IZ in the SSPN sample were richer in iron nitride (FeN) chromium nitride (CrN) along with the austenite phase. The results from nanoindentation, microscratch, nanoscratch and sliding wear studies confirmed that the static contact deformation resistance, the microwear, nanowear and sliding wear resistance of the SSPN samples were much better than those of the SS samples. These results were explained in terms of structure-property correlations.