This study aimed to apply a portable pulsed cold air plasma jet (PP-CAPJ) device in onychomycosis treatment and investigate its effect and mechanism of action. Based on the characteristics of onychomycosis, we selected Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum) for our experiments and explored the inactivation ability of the PP-CAPJ on T. rubrum that grew in nails. We found that the PP-CAPJ could effectively kill T. rubrum in the nails, and for T. rubrum in 1.5 mm thick nails, 300 spark discharges could kill almost all the fungi. The fungicidal mechanism is mainly due to the ability of shock waves from the PP-CAPJ to impose pressure on the nail and destroy the cell membrane of T. rubrum. This work has therefore demonstrated the use of an effective and noninvasive approach for the treatment of onychomycosis.
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