arXiv subjects

Charlotta Bengtson

Publications and source records attributed to Charlotta Bengtson.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

The quest to quantify selective and synergistic effects of plasma for cancer treatment: Insights from mathematical modeling

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) and plasma-treated liquids (PTLs) have recently become a promising option for cancer treatment, but the underlying mechanisms of the anti-cancer effect are still to a large extent unknown. Although hydrogen peroxide has been recognized as the major anti-cancer agent of PTL and may enable selectivity in a certain concentration regime, the co-existence of nitrite can create a synergistic effect. We develop a mathematical model to describe the key species and features of the cellular response towards PTL. From the numerical solutions, we define a number of dependent variables, which represent feasible measures to quantify cell susceptibility in terms of the hydrogen peroxide membrane diffusion rate constant and the intracellular catalase concentration. For each of these dependent variables, we investigate the regimes of selective versus non-selective, and of synergistic versus non-synergistic effect to evaluate their potential role as a measure of cell susceptibility. Our results suggest that the maximal intracellular hydrogen peroxide concentration, which in the selective regime is almost four times greater for the most susceptible cells compared to the most resistant cells, could be used to quantify the cell susceptibility towards exogenous hydrogen peroxide. We believe our theoretical approach brings novelty to the field of plasma oncology, and more broadly, to the field of redox biology, by proposing new ways to quantify the selective and synergistic anti-cancer effect of PTL in terms of inherent cell features.

q-bio.MN↗

arXiv2020

On the anti-cancer effect of cold atmospheric plasma and the possible role of catalase-dependent apoptotic pathways

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a promising new agent for (selective) cancer treatment, but the underlying cause of the anti-cancer effect of CAP is not well understood yet. Among different theories and observations, one theory in particular has been postulated in great detail and consists of a very complex network of reactions that are claimed to account for the anti-cancer effect of CAP. Here, the key concept is a reactivation of two specific apoptotic cell signaling pathways through catalase inactivation caused by CAP. Thus, it is postulated that the anti-cancer effect of CAP is due to its ability to inactivate catalase, either directly or indirectly. A theoretical investigation of the proposed theory, especially the role of catalase inactivation, can contribute to the understanding of the underlying cause of the anti-cancer effect of CAP. In the present study, we develop a mathematical model to analyze the proposed catalase-dependent anti-cancer effect of CAP. Our results show that a catalase-dependent reactivation of the two apoptotic pathways of interest is unlikely to contribute to the observed anti-cancer effect of CAP. Thus, we believe that other theories of the underlying cause should be considered and evaluated to gain knowledge about the principles of CAP-induced cancer cell death.

q-bio.MN↗

arXiv2018

Environmental design principles for efficient excitation energy transfer in dimer and trimer pigment-protein molecular aggregates and the relation to non-Markovianity

In this study, we explore optimal environments for efficient EET between end sites in a number of dimer and trimer model pigment-protein molecular aggregates when the EET dynamics is modeled by the HEOM-method. For these optimal environmental parameters, we further quantify the non-Markovianity by the BLP-measure to elucidate its possible connection to efficient EET. We also quantify coherence in the pigment systems by means of the measure l1-norm of coherence to analyze its interplay with environmental effects when EET efficiency is maximal. Our aim is to investigate possible environmental design principles for achieving efficient EET in model pigment-protein molecular aggregates and to determine whether non-Markovianity is a possible underlying resource in such systems. We find that the structure of the system Hamiltonian (i.e., the pigment Hamiltonian parameter space) and especially, the relationship between the site excitation energies, determines whether one of two specific environmental regimes is the most beneficial in promoting efficient EET in these model systems. In the first regime, optimal environmental conditions are such that the EET dynamics in the system is left as coherent as possible. In the second regime, the most advantageous role of the environment is to drive the system towards equilibrium as fast as possible. In reality, optimal environmental conditions may involve a combination of these two effects. We cannot establish a relation between efficient EET and non-Markovianity, i.e., non-Markovianity cannot be regarded as a resource in the systems investigated in this study.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

The role of quantum coherence in dimer and trimer excitation energy transfer

Recent progress in resource theory of quantum coherence has resulted in measures to quantify coherence in quantum systems. Especially, the l1-norm and relative entropy of coherence have been shown to be proper quantifiers of coherence and have been used to investigate coherence properties in different operational tasks. Since long-lasting quantum coherence has been experimentally confirmed in a number of photosynthetic complexes, it has been debated if and how coherence is connected to the known efficiency of population transfer in such systems. In this study, we investigate quantitatively the relationship between coherence, as quantified by l1-norm and relative entropy of coherence, and efficiency, as quantified by fidelity, for population transfer between end-sites in a network of two-level quantum systems. In particular, we use the coherence averaged over the duration of the population transfer in order to carry out a quantitative comparision between coherence and fidelity. Our results show that although coherence is a necessary requirement for population transfer, there is no unique relation between coherence and the efficiency of the transfer process.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum nonlocality in the excitation energy transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex

The Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex - a pigment protein complex involved in photosynthesis in green sulfur bacteria - is remarkably efficient in transferring excitation energy from light harvesting antenna molecules to a reaction center. Recent experimental and theoretical studies suggest that quantum coherence and entanglement may play a role in this excitation energy transfer (EET). We examine whether bipartite quantum nonlocality, a property that expresses a stronger-than-entanglement form of correlation, exists between different pairs of chromophores in the FMO complex when modeling the EET by the hierarchically coupled equations of motion method. We compare the results for nonlocality with the amount of bipartite entanglement in the system. In particular, we analyze in what way these correlation properties are affected by different initial conditions. It is found that bipartite nonlocality only exists when the initial conditions are chosen in an unphysiological manner and probably is absent when considering the EET in the FMO complex in its natural habitat. It is also seen that nonlocality and entanglement behave quite differently in this system. In particular, for localized initial states, nonlocality only exists on a very short time scale and then drops to zero in an abrupt manner. As already known from previous studies, quantum entanglement between chromophore pairs on the other hand is oscillating and exponentially decaying and follow thereby a pattern more similar to the chromophore population dynamics. The abrupt disappearance of nonlocality in the presence of nonvanishing entanglement is a phenomenon we call nonlocality sudden death; a striking manifestation of the difference between these two types of correlations in quantum systems.

quant-ph↗