Abstract
Bacterial infection and the growth of antibiotic resistance is a serious problem that leads to patient suffering, death and increased costs of healthcare. To address this problem, we propose using flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as light sources for photodynamic therapy (PDT) to kill bacteria. PDT involves the use of light and a photosensitizer to generate reactive oxygen species that kill neighbouring cells. We have developed flexible top-emitting OLEDs with the ability to tune the emission peak from 669 to 737 nm to match the photosensitizer, together with high irradiance, low driving voltage, long operational lifetime and adequate shelf-life. These features enable OLEDs to be the ideal candidate for ambulatory PDT light sources. A detailed study of OLED–PDT for killing Staphylococcus aureus was performed. The results show that our OLEDs in combination with the photosensitizer methylene blue, can kill more than 99% of bacteria. This indicates a huge potential for using OLEDs to treat bacterial infections.
Highlights
Bacterial infection has been a serious issue for centuries
These processes radically reduce the cost of manufacturing and will relieve the economic burden of developing expensive drugs.[29,30]. It is worth exploring the potential of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in medical applications, especially in Antimicrobial PDT (aPDT)
We demonstrate effective aPDT to kill Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by using flexible OLEDs as Photodynamic therapy (PDT) light sources and methylene blue (MB) as the photosensitizer
Summary
Bacterial infection has been a serious issue for centuries. The discovery of antibiotics has significantly improved the life expectancy of human beings by providing effective antimicrobial treatment.[1]. An estimation of global economic loss due to antimicrobial resistance has been made to be $100 trillion in total by 2050, if we do not take action.[5] To address this problem, it is necessary to explore some other approaches to treating bacterial infection. Antimicrobial PDT (aPDT) has been known for more than 20 years, and researchers have demonstrated its effectiveness on a range of strains of bacteria.[6,7,8,9] Some studies have shown the effectiveness of aPDT on drug-resistant bacteria,[10,11] and very encouragingly, no drug-resistant behaviour was observed even after 20 consecutive in vitro treatments and regrowth.[12] PDT is normally administered using large hospitalbased light sources, and so in spite of the evidence showing that it can offer an alternative approach to treating bacterial infections, the specialized light sources used have so far been an important factor limiting its adoption
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