Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Pathobiology Graduate Program, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 20;10(1):3066. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59652-6.
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.
抗生素耐药性的出现和传播要求开发非化学治疗方案来治疗细菌感染。等离子体医学应用低温等离子体（LTP）物理学来解决伤口愈合和肿瘤抑制等生物医学问题。LTP 也已用于表面消毒。然而，对于 LTP 对液体悬浮细菌的有效性，特别是对多孔表面上细菌的有效性，仍有许多需要了解的地方。我们使用大气压等离子体射流研究了 LTP 处理对细菌的效果，结果表明，LTP 处理能够抑制固体和多孔表面上的革兰氏阳性（金黄色葡萄球菌）和革兰氏阴性（大肠杆菌）细菌。此外，直接 LTP 处理和等离子体激活介质对液体培养物中悬浮的细菌均有效。我们的数据表明，活性氧是 LTP 杀菌作用的关键介质，而过氧化氢是必要的，但不是抗菌作用的充分条件。此外，我们的数据表明，暴露于 LTP 的细菌不会对进一步的 LTP 治疗产生耐药性。这些发现表明，这种新型大气压等离子体射流可以用作体内抗生素治疗的潜在替代方法。
