Abstract
Emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance calls for development of non-chemical treatment options for bacterial infections. Plasma medicine applies low-temperature plasma (LTP) physics to address biomedical problems such as wound healing and tumor suppression. LTP has also been used for surface disinfection. However, there is still much to be learned regarding the effectiveness of LTP on bacteria in suspension in liquids, and especially on porous surfaces. We investigated the efficacy of LTP treatments against bacteria using an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet and show that LTP treatments have the ability to inhibit both gram-positive (S. aureus) and gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria on solid and porous surfaces. Additionally, both direct LTP treatment and plasma-activated media were effective against the bacteria suspended in liquid culture. Our data indicate that reactive oxygen species are the key mediators of the bactericidal effects of LTP and hydrogen peroxide is necessary but not sufficient for antibacterial effects. In addition, our data suggests that bacteria exposed to LTP do not develop resistance to further treatment with LTP. These findings suggest that this novel atmospheric-pressure plasma jet could be used as a potential alternative to antibiotic treatments in vivo.
Highlights
Emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance calls for development of non-chemical treatment options for bacterial infections
Aside from the medical obstacles posed by treatment of patients with bacterial infections, the spread of antibiotic resistance results in significant excess healthcare system costs and economic burdens with estimates of up to $1 billion per year and $3 trillion in worldwide gross domestic product losses respectively[5,6]
It was found that low-temperature plasma (LTP) treatments were able to consistently produce 90% reduction in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains on solid and porous surfaces, as well as in liquid
Summary
Emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance calls for development of non-chemical treatment options for bacterial infections. These findings suggest that this novel atmospheric-pressure plasma jet could be used as a potential alternative to antibiotic treatments in vivo. Aside from the medical obstacles posed by treatment of patients with bacterial infections, the spread of antibiotic resistance results in significant excess healthcare system costs and economic burdens with estimates of up to $1 billion per year and $3 trillion in worldwide gross domestic product losses respectively[5,6]. Our results revealed that generation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) during LTP treatments was critical for its bactericidal activity, and that bacteria do not develop resistance to LTP treatments Together, this represents an important step forward towards developing plasma-mediated strategies for combating drug-resistant bacterial infections
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