Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 6;21(21):8321.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21218321.

Inactivation of Infectious Bacteria Using Nonthermal Biocompatible Plasma Cabinet Sterilizer

Mahmuda Akter  1   2 , Dharmendra Kumar Yadav  3 , Se Hoon Ki  2   4 , Eun Ha Choi  1   2   4 , Ihn Han  1   2
Affiliations

Inactivation of Infectious Bacteria Using Nonthermal Biocompatible Plasma Cabinet Sterilizer

Mahmuda Akter et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Nonthermal, biocompatible plasma (NBP) is a promising unique state of matter that is effective against a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms. This study focused on a sterilization method for bacteria that used the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) biocompatible plasma cabinet sterilizer as an ozone generator. Reactive oxygen species play a key role in inactivation when air or other oxygen-containing gases are used. Compared with the untreated control, Escherichia coli(E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Salmonella typhimurium (sepsis) were inhibited by approximately 99%, or were nondetectable following plasma treatment. Two kinds of plasma sterilizers containing six- or three-chamber cabinets were evaluated. There was no noticeable difference between the two configurations in the inactivation of microorganisms. Both cabinet configurations were shown to be able to reduce microbes dramatically, i.e., to the nondetectable range. Therefore, our data indicate that the biocompatible plasma cabinet sterilizer may prove to be an appropriate alternative sterilization procedure.

Keywords: Escherichia coli (E. coli); Nonthermal biocompatible plasma (NBP); Reactive nitrogen species (RNS); Reactive oxygen species (ROS); Salmonella typhimurium (sepsis); Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus); cabinet sterilizer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Schematic of the experimental setup with the DBD nonthermal biocompatible plasma electrode structure; (b) current and voltage waveforms during discharge; (c) optical emission spectra (OES) of plasma; (d) ozone concentration measurement during treatment time; (e) the amount of H2O2; and (f) NO2 concentration according to plasma treatment time. (g) Photograph of the plasma cabinet sterilizer with six and three chambers and the discharge photo of plasma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plasma inactivation efficiency of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in the six-chamber (cabinet 1) cabinet (a,b). Representative culture plates with cultures at 104, 105, and 106 dilution factors. (c,d) Growth characteristics curve. All t-test value is p < 0.001 as compared to control.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a,b) Representative culture plates showing the inactivation efficiency of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) at 104, 105, and 106 dilution factors. (c,d) Growth characteristics curve for the bacteria in the three chambers (cabinet 2) of the plasma cabinet. All t-test value is p < 0.001 as compared to control.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Molecular docking interaction of docked (a) hydrogen peroxide, (b) ozone, and (c) nitrates with E. coli.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Molecular docking interaction of docked (a) hydrogen peroxide, (b) ozone, and (c) nitrates with S. aureus.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Molecular docking interaction of docked (a) hydrogen peroxide, (b) ozone, and (c) nitrates with Salmonella typhimurium.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Matthews I.P., Gibson C., Samuel A.H. Sterilisation of implantable devices. Clin. Mater. 1994;15:191–215. doi: 10.1016/0267-6605(94)90082-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Athanasiou K.A., Niederauer G.G., Agrawal C.M. Sterilization, toxicity, biocompatibility and clinical applications of polylactic acid/polyglycolic acid copolymers. Biomaterials. 1996;17:93–102. doi: 10.1016/0142-9612(96)85754-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rezaei F., Vanraes P., Nikiforov A., Morent R., De Geyter N. Applications of plasma-liquid systems: A review. Materials. 2019;12:2751. doi: 10.3390/ma12172751. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ehlbeck J., Schnabel U., Polak M., Winter J., von Woedtke T., Brandenburg R., von dem Hagen T., Weltmann K.-D. Low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma sources for microbial decontamination. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 2011;44:013002. doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/1/013002. - DOI
    1. Zhang Q., Sun P., Feng H., Wang R., Liang Y., Zhu W., Becker K.H., Zhang J., Fang J. Assessment of the roles of various inactivation agents in an argon-based direct current atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet. J. Appl. Phys. 2012;111:123305. doi: 10.1063/1.4730627. - DOI

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources