Limsopatham Kwankamol, Boonyawan Dheerawan, Umongno Chanchai, Sukontason Kabkaew L, Chaiwong Tarinee, Leksomboon Rattana, Sukontason Kom
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand; Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand.
Acta Trop. 2017 Dec;176:173-178. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.08.005. Epub 2017 Aug 9.
Non-thermal plasma has been used in many medical applications, including treatment of living cells, blood coagulation, wound healing, and sterilization. The process uses an environmentally friendly gas (e.g., argon, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, or hydrogen) to destroy bacteria cells with no serious adverse effect on humans or animals. However, information on the effect of argon plasma on blow fly eggs is lacking. In this study, we explored the ability of cold argon plasma to destroy the eggs of the Australian sheep blow fly, Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann, 1830); its larvae are a myiasis-producing agent in both human and animals. We tested the effect of cold argon plasma exposure for 1, 2, 3 and 5min on L. cuprina eggs. Since the temperature of cold Ar plasma is around 30°C, to clarify the effect of temperature on the fly eggs, hot air from an electric dryer was tested for comparison. Cold argon plasma exposure in eggs significantly reduced the survival rates of second instar larvae at all exposures tested; the effects were time dependent, with a stronger effect at longer exposure (32% survival rate after a 1-min treatment; 20%, 2min; 20%, 3min; and 6%, 5min), compared to the control (86%). No significant differences were observed in larval survival rates from eggs treated with hot air (80-84%, after 1- to 5-min treatments) versus the control (86%). These results were supported by observing the treated eggshells under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), we found noticeable aberrations only in the plasma treated groups. The emission spectrum of the argon gas discharge revealed emission lines of hydroxyl radicals at 309.1nm; these may cause the deterioration of the treated L. cuprina eggs. Our results have shown the possibility of using cold argon plasma in medical applications, in particular treating myiasis wounds.
非热等离子体已被应用于许多医学领域，包括活细胞治疗、血液凝固、伤口愈合和消毒。该过程使用一种环境友好型气体（如氩气、氦气、氧气、氮气或氢气）来破坏细菌细胞，对人类或动物没有严重的不良影响。然而，关于氩等离子体对绿头苍蝇卵的影响的信息却很缺乏。在本研究中，我们探究了冷氩等离子体破坏澳大利亚绵羊绿头苍蝇（Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann, 1830)）卵的能力；其幼虫是人和动物体内的致蝇蛆病病原体。我们测试了冷氩等离子体暴露1、2、3和5分钟对绿头苍蝇卵的影响。由于冷氩等离子体的温度约为30°C，为了阐明温度对蝇卵的影响，我们测试了电吹风机的热风作为对照。对卵进行冷氩等离子体暴露在所有测试暴露时间下均显著降低了二龄幼虫的存活率；这些影响具有时间依赖性，暴露时间越长效果越强（1分钟处理后存活率为32%；2分钟为20%；3分钟为20%；5分钟为6%），而对照组为86%。用热风处理的卵的幼虫存活率（1至5分钟处理后为80 - 84%）与对照组（86%）相比，未观察到显著差异。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）观察处理后的蛋壳支持了这些结果，我们发现仅在等离子体处理组中存在明显的畸变。氩气放电的发射光谱显示在309.1nm处有羟基自由基的发射线；这些可能导致处理后的绿头苍蝇卵变质。我们的结果表明了在医学应用中，特别是治疗蝇蛆病伤口时使用冷氩等离子体的可能性。
