In Vitro Killing of Clinical Fungal Strains by Low-Temperature Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Jet

Plasma medicine is an expanding focus and offers new aspects of therapy combining potent physical partial efficacies, like such as ultraviolet, infrared, and reactive species and particles, and nowadays, many successful treatments of different illnesses have been described. Fungal skin and nail infections pose significant therapeutic and economical problems. To test the plasma susceptibility of clinical strains of the most frequently encountered fungal species involved in dermatomycosis, clinical isolates of Trichophyton interdigitale, Trichophyton rubrum, Microsporum canis, and Candida albicans were irradiated by a cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet. Punctual plasma irradiation eradicated fungal growth of all species with the largest inactivation zones with most progress in the first 15 s of treatment, treating C. albicans and least progress in that of , the lowest being M. canis. No isolate exhibited resistance to plasma treatment. Plasma treatment also completely eradicated reproductive fungal elements of T. interdigitale in dandruff of patients with tinea pedis ex vivo and in the environment in contaminated shoes. Accordingly, cold plasma seems suited to antifungal in vivo treatment of fungal skin infections and decontamination of environmental infective material.

I. Introduction

Nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma has been introduced in medical and biologic applications since it demonstrated well-characterized antimicrobial in vitro efficacy, as well as medically important biochemical effects [1]–[3]. In the last years, the first results of clinical plasma applications were undertaken to treat acute and chronic infectious diseases and wounds with successful treatments, e.g., of eye infections, bacterial skin infections, chronic ulcer wounds, and pulmonary tuberculosis [4], [5]. One restriction to the general, unlimited, and nonprofessional application of plasma is the conscientious conformance of the requirements of the safe medical use of a treatment.