Hanne Verswyvel

University of Antwerp | UA · Department of oncology

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a source of cell‐damaging oxidant molecules that may be used as low‐cost cancer treatment with minimal side effects. Liquids treated with cold plasma and enriched with oxidants are a modality for non‐invasive treatment of internal tumors with cold plasma via injection. However, liquids are easily diluted with body f...

Live-cell imaging with fluorescence microscopy is a powerful tool, especially in cancer research, widely-used for capturing dynamic cellular processes over time. However, light-induced toxicity (phototoxicity) can be incurred from this method, via disruption of intracellular redox balance and an overload of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This can i...

Aims: To gain insights into the underlying mechanisms of NTP therapy sensitivity and resistance, using the first-ever NTP-resistant cell line derived from sensitive melanoma cells (A375). Methods: Melanoma cells were exposed to NTP and re-cultured for 12 consecutive weeks before evaluation against the parental control cells. Whole transcriptome...

Gap junctions (GJs), essential structures for cell-cell communication, are made of two hemichannels (commonly called connexons), one on each adjacent cell. Found in almost all cells, GJs play a pivotal role in many physiological and cellular processes, and have even been linked to the progression of diseases, such as cancer. Modulation of GJs is un...

Melanoma remains a deadly cancer despite significant advances in immune checkpoint blockade and targeted therapies. The incidence of melanoma is also growing worldwide, which highlights the need for novel treatment options and strategic combination of therapies. Here, we investigate non‐thermal plasma (NTP), an ionized gas, as a promising, therapeu...

Multiple cancer therapies nowadays rely on oxidative stress to damage cancer cells. Here we investigated the biological and molecular effect of oxidative stress on the interaction between CD44 and hyaluronan (HA), as interrupting their binding can hinder cancer progression. Our experiments demonstrated that the oxidation of HA decreased its recogni...

Simple Summary Non-thermal plasma is being developed for cancer immunotherapy. The aim of our study was to determine the effect of non-thermal plasma on immunosuppressive immune checkpoint, CD47. The direct effect of non-thermal plasma on CD47 was measured in vitro and in vivo, and the mechanism of action was studied in silico. Non-thermal plasma i...