Controlled kHz laser-driven electron irradiations for pre-clinical applications

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first in-air laser-driven electron irradiations for pre-clinical biological applications, showing promising results for tissue sparing and cancer treatment efficacy, advancing towards clinical use.

Contribution

It introduces a novel procedure for controlled, on-demand electron beam irradiation using laser-driven accelerators, with detailed parameter stability analysis.

Findings

Improved survival rate of zebrafish embryos

Unchanged cytotoxicity in cell cultures

Potential for normal tissue sparing in cancer therapy

Abstract

We report the first in-air irradiations of biological samples with kHz laser-driven electrons with beam energy 20 MeV, high-energy tail extending to 40 MeV, and average dose rate up to 30 Gy/min. An in-house procedure has been developed to characterize and deliver on-demand (i.e. pre-agreed date and time) the target electron beam energy, dose and dose uniformity. We present a tolerance analysis on the laser electron parameters, highlighting the importance of beam stability for precise irradiations of in vivo zebrafish embryos and in vitro U251 glioblastoma cell line. The observed improvement in the survival rate of the zebrafish embryos, combined with unchanged cytotoxicity in the cell cultures, indicates promising results for normal tissue sparing while maintaining anticancer efficacy. The pre-clinical results of this work represent an important milestone towards the clinical translation of laser-plasma accelerators.