A Novel Approach to Inactivate the Clinical Isolates of Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum by Using Non-Thermal Plasma

Abstract

In this study, we propose a novel approach that uses non-thermal plasma to inactivate dermatophytes, and we evaluate the antifungal activity of the proposed method using an In vitro infected skin model with clinical isolates of dermatophytes. For this study, a floating electrode-dielectric barrier discharge (FE-DBD) plasma jet was the source for non-thermal plasma, and we investigated its antifungal activity on Trichophyton mentagrophytes (T. mentagrophytes) and Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum), two clinical isolates of dermatophytes. These two strains are the most frequently isolated from skin, hair, and nail infections for use in an infected skin model. The results of this study confirm that the FE-DBD plasma jet has statistically significant antifungal activity in saline and in an infected skin model, and after plasma treatment; we also observed a significant inhibition of the growth of the conidia and hypha for both strains in the infected skin mimicking model. In addition, we found a time-dependent correlation between the intracellular reactive species and the fungal cell viabilities after exposure to plasma. These results indicate FE-DBD plasma can inactivate clinically isolated dermatophyte species and suggest that non-thermal plasma may be an effective tool for use in supportive and/or alternative treatments for dermatophytosis.