An Electroporation Device with Microbead-Enhanced Electric Field for Bacterial Inactivation

Sanam Pudasaini,Chun Yang,Yong Bing Chong,Syed S U Ahmed,A T K Perera,Sum Huan Ng

doi:10.3390/inventions5010002

Sanam Pudasaini, Chun Yang + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions5010002

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Abstract

This paper presents an electroporation device with high bacterial inactivation performance (~4.75 log removal). Inside the device, insulating silica microbeads are densely packed between two mesh electrodes that enable enhancement of the local electric field strength, allowing improved electroporation of bacterial cells. The inactivation performance of the device is evaluated using two model bacteria, including one Gram-positive bacterium (Enterococcus faecalis) and one Gram-negative bacterium (Escherichia coli) under various applied voltages. More than 4.5 log removal of bacteria is obtained for the applied electric field strength of 2 kV/cm at a flowrate of 4 mL/min. The effect of microbeads on the inactivation performance is assessed by comparing the performance of the microbead device with that of the device having no microbeads under same operating conditions. The comparison results show that only 0.57 log removal is achieved for the device having no microbeads—eightfold lower than for the device with microbeads.

Highlights

Electroporation is a widely used nonviral technology for transfection of genes and drugs [1,2,3,4].Under the application of a strong electric field, supraphysiological membrane potential is induced across the cell membrane to cause the formation of nanopores and change cell permeability [5].When the applied field strength is sufficiently high, cell membranes are permanently perforated, leading to cell inactivation
Paper, we present electroporation-based bacterial inactivation operating on an enhanced. In this we present electroporation-based bacterial inactivation operating an enhanced electric fieldpaper, induced by insulating microbeads
The minimum electricenhancement field strength of in electric the same cutstrength plane is is approximately kV/cm, which suggests at least fivefold field achieved when kV/cm, which suggests at least fivefold enhancement of electric field strength is achieved when beads beads are used

Summary

Introduction

Electroporation is a widely used nonviral technology for transfection of genes and drugs [1,2,3,4].Under the application of a strong electric field, supraphysiological membrane potential is induced across the cell membrane to cause the formation of nanopores and change cell permeability [5].When the applied field strength is sufficiently high, cell membranes are permanently perforated, leading to cell inactivation. The electroporation technique has numerous applications, such as the delivery of exogenous reagents like genes, drugs, and nanoparticles or the extraction of intracellular components like proteins, nucleic acids, etc. [6,7] It plays an important role in recent breakthroughs such as gene editing (CRISPR-Cas9) [8,9] and cell reprogramming (induced neurons) [10]. This method is used in the beverage, wine, and dairy industries for disinfecting liquid products [11,12,13,14]

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