Doxorubicin (DOX) is widely used in clinical chemotherapy, but its susceptibility to oxidation during the combined treatment with cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) raises concerns regarding its therapeutic efficacy. To improve drug stability and targeted delivery efficiency, this study employed classical molecular dynamics simulations to systematically investigate the mechanisms by which CAP-generated active particles and electric fields influence DOX encapsulation by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their transmembrane transport. Within a specific range of active particle concentrations, DOX aggregation is suppressed, enabling its spontaneous entry into CNTs for encapsulation. The CAP-induced electric field further promotes the directional migration of DOX, and once a threshold field strength is reached, the encapsulation efficiency is significantly enhanced. Moreover, an appropriate concentration of active particles can lower this threshold, enabling high encapsulation efficiency at electric field strengths as low as 0.3 V/nm. The introduction of CNTs can reduce the exposure of DOX to active particles, thereby effectively protecting it from CAP-induced oxidation. Regarding transmembrane transport, CAP-induced lipid oxidation decreases membrane structural stability, facilitating the intracellular internalization of CNTs and promoting the release of DOX within target cells. Furthermore, under the combined effects of oxidation and electric fields, the pulling force required for CNT transmembrane transport further decreases, the size of transmembrane pores increases, and the transmembrane delivery of DOX is enhanced. These results demonstrate that, under plasma synergy, CNTs exhibit significant potential in enhancing the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. This work provides important theoretical support for the application of plasma in targeted cancer therapy and offers new insights for the design of precision cancer treatment strategies.
林柔嘉 et al. (Sun,) studied this question.