Study On The Mechanism Of Atmospheric Surface Microdischarge Plasma On Onychomycosis

With the development of low temperature plasma medicine,it has made a lot of scientific achievements in the biomedical applications such as dermatology,wound healing,dentistry and cancer treatment,which provides a new treatment method for related diseases.More than 10% of people in the world suffer from onychomycosis,which seriously affects people's daily life as well as physical and mental health.The existing treatment methods have lots of disadvantages,such as long time,poor efficacy,side effects and large cost,etc.,so it has a high market value to find a new efficient and safe treatment scheme.In our previous study,we found that atmospheric pressure low temperature plasma can effectively treat onychomycosis.This paper will further focus on the interaction mechanism between low temperature plasma and onychomycosis.Through experimental design,the physical penetration and chemical reaction effects of low-temperature plasma on onychomycosis are creatively combined with different diagnostic methods to reveal the mechanism of plasma on onychomycosis.In this investigation,a surface microdischarge plasma discharge device based on the principle of dielectric barrier discharge was selected and developed.Then the discharge characteristics of the device are studied,and the discharge products were diagnosed.The detection and transformation judgment of the two discharge modes of the device were realized.At the same time,according to the main components of human nail plate and the infection mechanism of onychomycosis,two kinds of suitable nail plate models were developed by using keratin and bovine nail respectively.They were placed in a specific sealed cavity,and treated with surface microdischarge plasma to study the action mechanism of plasma on onychomycosis.In the experiment of studying physical penetration,the concentration of nitrogen oxide penetrating the nail model was quantitatively measured by a microplate reader using Griess method.In the experiment of chemical reaction,the surface spectrum of nail model was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer,and then the change of transmission spectrum of nail model was measured according to UV-Vis absorption spectrum.The experimental results show that for a certain thickness of the sample,the nitrogen oxide content of the penetrating sample increases with the increase of the treatment time,while for the same treatment time,the penetrating amount decreases with the increase of the nail thickness.At the same time,new functional groups were formed on the surface of nail after plasma treatment.After analysis,we get the mechanism of plasma action on onychomycosis: firstly,the nitrogen oxide gas reacts with the nail model on its surface,and then the active component starts to penetrate.During the penetration process,the chemical reaction occurs simultaneously,which changes some structures and functional groups in the nail model.Finally,the nitrogen oxide reaches the back of the nail plate and acts directly on the pathogen,thus killing the pathogen.