Agus Rita, Avino Fabio, Lavrikova Aleksandra, Myers Brayden, Furno Ivo
Department of Physics, Swiss Plasma Center (SPC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Front Microbiol. 2025 Jun 4;16:1592471. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1592471. eCollection 2025.
Plasma-activated water (PAW) is an emerging antimicrobial agent with promising applications in bacterial inactivation. The PAW samples are generated by non-contact exposure of deionized water to a surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma and are characterized by a reactive nitrogen species-rich chemistry. In this work, fluorescence flow cytometry is applied to assess the viability of treated with PAW. The results indicate that PAW exhibits a strong bactericidal effect, significantly increasing propidium iodide positive populations and leading to cell shrinkage. Comparative colony-forming unit counting confirmed these findings, showing agreement between both techniques and ruling out the possibility of a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) bacteria state. These results underscore the potential of the PAW samples produced with the present setup for safe decontamination applications, while also offering insights into the mechanisms of bacterial inactivation.
等离子体活化水（PAW）是一种新兴的抗菌剂，在细菌灭活方面具有广阔的应用前景。PAW样品通过将去离子水非接触式暴露于表面介质阻挡放电等离子体产生，其化学性质富含活性氮物种。在这项工作中，荧光流式细胞术用于评估经PAW处理后的细胞活力。结果表明，PAW具有很强的杀菌作用，显著增加碘化丙啶阳性群体并导致细胞收缩。比较菌落形成单位计数证实了这些发现，表明两种技术结果一致，排除了活的但不可培养（VBNC）细菌状态的可能性。这些结果强调了采用当前装置产生的PAW样品在安全去污应用方面的潜力，同时也为细菌灭活机制提供了见解。
