Novel electroporation System for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive Bacteria Assisted by Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Gram positive (Lactoccocus lactis) and Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli)were used to study the interaction of water-dispersible muti-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with the bacterial cell envelope during microwave (MW) energy exposure. It was observed that the addition of a tiny amount of CNTs to a medium containing bacteria and subsequent exposure of the samples to MW, leads to an intimate contact between the CNT tips and the cell envelope. This phenomenon can be explained in terms of attractive forces between opposite charges of polar structures. Since CNTs under MW irradiation behave like electric dipoles, this would make it possible for the CNTs to target the cell surface without inducing changes in the cell shape and viability. Thus, the electrochemical properties of CNTs and their capillarity make them useful tools for cell manipulation, and therefore for the intracellular transport of drugs, dyes or biomolecules.

Applications of Microwave Energy in Medicine

“…a healthcare setting once these methods have been proven to be robust [68,69 Diagnostic and identification methods that do not rely on the extraction lular components have also been researched. Nanotube assisted microw poration (NAME) is a method that utilises electroporation; NAME however a ual identification rather than DNA extraction [70]. This technique can be ap only extract the contents of a bacterial cell but to act as a transport system to d ecules such as biosensors into the cells (Figure 6).…”