Atomic scale modeling for plasma-enhanced cancer immunotherapy: targeting the signal inhibitory proteins.

Biomedical applications of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) are gaining increasing interest. In particular, CAP seems very promising for cancer immunotherapy. However, the underlying mechanisms need to be better understood. CAP generates a rich mixture of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), which interact with living cells, inducing molecular level modifications to their components (e.g., proteins) upon oxidation. This will influence the intra- and/or intercellular signaling pathways, leading to various alterations in the cellular metabolism, which are stated to cause immunogenic cancer cell death. To better understand the effect of plasma on the process of cancer cell elimination by the immune system, a fundamental insight in the protein-protein interactions of cancer and immune cells, and in the effect of plasma-induced oxidation, is crucial. Complementary to experiments, computer simulations allow us to study the underlying processes with nanoscale precision. Thus, in this project, I aim to elucidate the mechanisms of immunogenic cell death induced by plasma-generated RONS, which leads to unmasking the cancer cells and to effectively eliminating them by immune cells. Specifically, I will perform a combination of different atomic scale simulations to study the interaction between proteins of immune cells and cancer cells, and the subsequent effect of plasma-induced oxidation on their binding affinity.

Keywords:PLASMA OXIDATION, PLASMA MEDICINE

Disciplines:Statistical physics, Thermodynamics, Applied and interdisciplinary physics, Computational physics, Theoretical and computational chemistry not elsewhere classified