Synergistic effects of atmospheric pressure plasma‐emitted components on DNA oligomers: a Raman spectroscopic study

Abstract

Cold atmospheric-pressure plasmas have become of increasing importance in sterilization processes especially with the growing prevalence of multi-resistant bacteria. Albeit the potential for technological application is obvious, much less is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying bacterial inactivation. X-jet technology separates plasma-generated reactive particles and photons, thus allowing the investigation of their individual and joint effects on DNA. Raman spectroscopy shows that particles and photons cause different modifications in DNA single and double strands. The treatment with the combination of particles and photons does not only result in cumulative, but in synergistic effects. Profilometry confirms that etching is a minor contributor to the observed DNA damage in vitro. Schematics of DNA oligomer treatment with cold atmospheric-pressure plasma.

The fate of plasma-generated oxygen atoms in aqueous solutions: non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasmas as an efficient source of atomic O(aq)

“…These reactive species can be used in many applications such as water treatment, generation of nanoparticles, material syntheses, or plasma medicine. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] The CAPs exist in many variants, with the most abundant being dielectric barrier discharges (DBD), DBD jets, radio-frequency operated jets or even microwave plasma sources. [36][37][38][39][40][41] Most of these sources are operated in a noble gas with a small admixture of a molecular precursor, but some of them, especially the DBD's can be operated in ambient air without any need for a gas supply.…”

Plasma-sensitiveEscherichia colimutants reveal plasma resistance mechanisms

“…(e.g. hydroxyl radicals) plasma also introduces modifications to DNA causing strand breaks and mutations [12,13].…”

Fighting Mixed-Species Microbial Biofilms With Cold Atmospheric Plasma

“…Another interaction is the photodesorption implemented by UV radiation, which results in the subsequent chemical bond breakage of bacterial organic macromolecules (Van Der Paal et al, 2016;Brun et al, 2018). The third interaction is the DNA damage triggered by reactive species (Delben et al, 2016;Sakudo et al, 2018), and the last interaction is the oxidative damage of bacterial proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids caused by ROS and RNS (Edengeiser et al, 2015;Ji et al, 2018). As a result, Gram-negative bacteria, such as P. aeruginosa, often exhibit visible morphological changes in cell shape, whereas minor or inconspicuous morphological deformities are observed in Gram-positive bacteria, such as S. aureus and E. faecalis, after the CAP procedure (Nishime et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2020).…”