Following our previous study of the therapy of onychomycosis by non-thermal plasma (NTP) and nail hygiene and to obtain some prerequisite data of dermatophytes sensitivity, the dynamics of those inactivation by NTP plasma was monitored for various strains of Trichophyton iterdigitale, Trichophyton benhamiae, Trichophyton rubrum, and Microsporum canis. Three strains of each species on agar plates were exposed with plasma produced by a DC corona discharge in the point-to-ring arrangement in various time intervals. Although all strains were sufficiently sensitive to plasma action, significant differences were observed in their sensitivity and inactivation dynamics. These differences did not correlate with the species classification of individual strains, but could be assigned to four arbitrarily created types of strain response to NTP according to their sensitivity. These results indicate that the sensitivity to plasma is not an inherent property of the fungal species, but varies from strain to strain.

Department of Bacteriology and Mycology Public Health Institute in Ostrava Partyzánské Nám 7 702 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Biomedical Sciences Institute of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava Syllabova 19 703 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Computing and Control Engineering Faculty of Chemical Engineering University of Chemistry and Technology Prague Technická 5 166 28 Praha Czech Republic

Department of Physics and Measurements Faculty of Chemical Engineering University of Chemistry and Technology Prague Technická 5 166 28 Praha Czech Republic

Institute of Immunology and Microbiology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Studničkova 7 128 00 Praha Czech Republic

Podiatric Center Medicia Daliborova 421 15 709 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

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Non-Thermal Plasma Sources Based on Cometary and Point-to-Ring Discharges