Olayiwola Beatrice, O'Neill Fiona, Frewen Chloe, Kavanagh Darren F, O'Hara Rosemary, O'Neill Liam
Department of Science and Health, South East Technological University, Kilkenny Road, R93 V960 Carlow, Ireland.
TheraDep Inc., 2200 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95131, USA.
Pathogens. 2024 Apr 16;13(4):326. doi: 10.3390/pathogens13040326.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) remain a significant factor in hospitals, with implant surfaces often becoming contaminated by highly resistant strains of bacteria. Recent studies have shown that electrical plasma discharges can reduce bacterial load on surfaces, and this approach may help augment traditional antibiotic treatments. To investigate this, a cold atmospheric plasma was used to deposit tobramycin sulphate onto various surfaces, and the bacterial growth rate of in its planktonic and biofilm form was observed to probe the interactions between the plasma discharge and the antibiotic and to determine if there were any synergistic effects on the growth rate. The plasma-deposited tobramycin was still active after passing through the plasma field and being deposited onto titanium or polystyrene. This led to the significant inhibition of , with predictable antibiotic dose dependence. Separate studies have shown that the plasma treatment of the biofilm had a weak antimicrobial effect and reduced the amount of biofilm by around 50%. Combining a plasma pre-treatment on exposed biofilm followed by deposited tobramycin application proved to be somewhat effective in further reducing biofilm growth. The plasma discharge pre-treatment produced a further reduction in the biofilm load beyond that expected from just the antibiotic alone. However, the effect was not additive, and the results suggest that a complex interaction between plasma and antibiotic may be at play, with increasing plasma power producing a non-linear effect. This study may contribute to the treatment of infected surgical sites, with the coating of biomaterial surfaces with antibiotics reducing overall antibiotic use through the targeted delivery of therapeutics.
医院获得性感染（HAIs）仍然是医院中的一个重要因素，植入物表面常常会被高耐药性细菌菌株污染。最近的研究表明，电等离子体放电可以减少表面的细菌载量，这种方法可能有助于增强传统的抗生素治疗。为了对此进行研究，使用冷大气等离子体将硫酸妥布霉素沉积到各种表面上，并观察其浮游和生物膜形式的细菌生长速率，以探究等离子体放电与抗生素之间的相互作用，并确定对生长速率是否存在任何协同效应。等离子体沉积的妥布霉素在通过等离子体场并沉积到钛或聚苯乙烯上后仍具有活性。这导致了对[细菌名称未给出]的显著抑制，且具有可预测的抗生素剂量依赖性。单独的研究表明，对生物膜进行等离子体处理具有较弱的抗菌作用，并使生物膜量减少了约50%。事实证明，先对暴露的生物膜进行等离子体预处理，然后应用沉积的妥布霉素，在进一步减少生物膜生长方面有些效果。等离子体放电预处理使生物膜负荷进一步降低，超过了仅使用抗生素所预期的效果。然而，这种效果并非相加性的，结果表明等离子体与抗生素之间可能存在复杂的相互作用，等离子体功率增加会产生非线性效应。这项研究可能有助于治疗感染的手术部位，通过将抗生素涂覆在生物材料表面，通过靶向递送治疗药物来减少总体抗生素使用。
