The Parameters Affecting Antimicrobial Efficiency of Antimicrobial Blue Light Therapy: A Review and Prospect

Inactivating facultative pathogen bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater using blue light irradiation combined with a photosensitizer and hydrogen peroxide

The effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light (aBL) irradiation in eliminating ten clinically significant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and four taxonomic marker genes of the WHO-priority ESKAPE bacteria group from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent was examined. Experiments were conducted using an LED-driven continuous-flow photoreactor operating at wavelengths of 405 nm, 420 nm, and 460 nm. Irradiation with aBL alone was insufficient for effectively inactivating or eliminating ESKAPE bacteria and clinically relevant ARGs. The addition of the porphyrin-based photosensitizer TMPyP (10-6 M) or the oxidative agent H₂O₂ (1 mM) resulted in several log10 unit reductions of facultative pathogenic bacteria (FPB), their taxonomic gene markers, and target ARGs. However, the additional effects of TMPyP and H2O2 were only noticeable in conjunction with aBL irradiation, as they were ineffective without it. The reduction of the different FPB and ARGs in WWTP effluents was analyzed using culturing and qPCR together with living/dead discrimination. Different FPB and ARGs showed varying susceptibility to aBL-mediated irradiation. Among the FPB, enterococci were the most sensitive, while among the ARGs bacteria carrying ermB, tetM, sul1, and blaVIM genes exhibited the strongest removal. This sensitivity may be due to the gene-carrying microorganism's response to aBL irradiation combined with TMPyP or H2O2. Additionally, molecular biology results revealed that aBL irradiation induced up to 13 lesions per 10 kb DNA, which is hypothesized to contribute to the acute inactivation effect and prevent regrowth by inhibiting DNA repair activities.

The Impact of Light Parameters and Tetracycline Concentration on Antimicrobial Photodynamic Inactivation Against Drug Resistant Escherichia coli

ABL is an effective antimicrobial approach and recent studies indicated tetracycline has the ability to produce reactive oxygen species under blue light irradiation. However, the impact of light parameters and tetracycline concentration on the antimicrobial efficacy is not clear. In this study, we investigated the impacts of light dose, drug concentration, and irradiance on drug resistant Escherichia coli survival. The results showed the increase of light dose and drug concentration caused the increase in oxidative damage and bacterial death. Besides, we found the impact of irradiance on the combined antimicrobial effect was affected by the drug concentration. The results of photobleaching and dissolved oxygen showed the different rates of photochemical reaction under different irradiance. Finally, we proposed that suitable light treatment can be designed by varying the tetracycline concentration, light dose, and irradiance for different situations.

Biofilm inactivation using LED systems emitting germicidal UV and antimicrobial blue light

Biofilms have been widely detected in water distribution and water storage systems posing potential risks to drinking water safety by harboring and shedding pathogens. Light-based disinfection methods, such as germicidal ultraviolet (UV) and antimicrobial blue light (aBL), could serve as non-chemical alternatives for biofilm control. This study investigated the inactivation of pure-culture Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and mixed-culture biofilms using three distinct light-based disinfection methods: a low-pressure (LP) UV lamp emitting at 254 nm, a UV light emitting diode (LED) at 270 nm, and an aBL LED at 405 nm. The biofilms were developed on three commonly used materials including polycarbonate (PC), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to assess the impact of surface characteristics on light-based biofilm inactivation. Our findings show that all selected devices can effectively inactivate pure-culture and mixed-culture biofilms. While both UV devices (LP UV lamp and UV LED) provided significant inactivation at lower fluences (>1 log reduction at 20 mJ/cm2), aBL LED achieved significant inactivation at higher fluences for pure culture (maximum log reduction of 3.8 ± 0.5 at > 200,000 mJ/cm2). Inactivation performance also varied with surface materials, likely attributed to different surface properties including roughness, hydrophobicity, and surface charge. This study provides important information on using light-based technologies for biofilm control and highlights the effect of surface materials on their inactivation performance.

Comparative assessment of UV-C radiation and non-thermal plasma for inactivation of foodborne fungal spores suspension in vitro

Fungal contamination poses a persistent challenge to industries, particularly in food, healthcare, and clinical sectors, due to the remarkable resilience of fungi in withstanding conventional control methods. In this context, our research delves into the comparative efficacy of UV radiation and non-thermal plasma (NTP) on key foodborne fungal contaminants - Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium culmorum, and Fusarium graminearum. The study examined the impact of varying doses of UV radiation on the asexual spores of all mentioned fungal strains. Simultaneously, the study compared the effects of UV radiation and NTP on the metabolic activity of cells after spore germination and their subsequent germination ability. The results revealed that UV-C radiation (254 nm) did not significantly suppress the metabolic activity of cells after spore germination. In contrast, NTP exhibited almost 100% effectiveness on both selected spores and their subsequent germination, except for A. niger. In the case of A. niger, the effectiveness of UV-C and NTP was nearly comparable, showing only a 35% decrease in metabolic activity after 48 hours of germination, while the other strains (A. alternata, F. culmorum, F. graminearum) exhibited a reduction of more than 95%. SEM images illustrate the morphological changes in structure of all tested spores after both treatments. This study addresses a crucial gap in existing literature, offering insights into the adaptation possibilities of treated cells and emphasizing the importance of considering exposure duration and nutrient conditions (introduction of fresh medium). The results highlighted the promising antimicrobial potential of NTP, especially for filamentous fungi, paving the way for enhanced sanitation processes with diverse applications.

Evaluation of the potential of Delta-aminolevulinic acid for simultaneous detection of bioburden and anti-microbial photodynamic therapy of MRSA infected wounds in Swiss albino mice

BACKGROUND

The dramatic increase of drug-resistant bacteria necessitates urgent development of platforms to simultaneously detect and inactivate bacteria causing wound infections, but are confronted with various challenges. Delta amino levulinic acid (ALA) induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) can be a promising modality for simultaneous bioburden diagnostics and therapeutics. Herein, we report utility of ALA induced protoporphyrin (PpIX) based simultaneous bioburden detection, photoinactivation and therapeutic outcome assessment in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infected wounds of mice.

METHODS

MRSA infected wounds treated with 10% ALA were imaged with help of a blue LED (∼405 nm) based, USB powered, hand held device integrated with a modular graphic user interface (GUI). Effect of ALA application time, bacteria load, post bacteria application time points on wound fluorescence studied. PpIX fluorescence observed after excitation with blue LEDs was used to detect bioburden, start red light mediated antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT), determine aPDT effectiveness and assess selectivity of the approach.

RESULTS

ALA-PpIX fluorescence of wound bed discriminates infected from uninfected wounds and detects clinically relevant load. While wound fluorescence pattern changes as a function of ALA incubation and post infection time, intra-wound inhomogeneity in fluorescence correlates with the Gram staining data on presence of biofilms foci. Lack of red fluorescence from wound granulation tissue treated with ALA suggests selectivity of the approach. Further, significant reduction (∼50%) in red fluorescence, quantified using the GUI, relates well with bacteria load reduction observed post topical aPDT.

CONCLUSION

The potential of ALA induced PpIX for simultaneous detection of bioburden, photodynamic inactivation and "florescence-guided aPDT assessment" is demonstrated in MRSA infected wounds of mice.

Photoinactivation of Escherichia coli by 405 nm and 450 nm light-emitting diodes: Comparison of continuous wave and pulsed light

BACKGROUND

Antimicrobial blue light (ABL) therapy is one of the novel non-antibiotic approaches and recent studies showed the potential of pulsed ABL.

PURPOSE

Comparing photoinactivation effect of continuous wave (CW) and pulsed blue light and investigating the impact of varying light parameters.

METHODS

E. coli cells in planktonic were treated with CW and pulsed light (405 nm and 450 nm) at 60 mW/cm2, and the samples were taken to assess survival, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, damage of cell membrane and metabolic activity. Further, a ROS scavenger was used to find the role of ROS played in ABL therapy.

RESULTS

E. coli was more sensitive to 405 nm light and the photoinactivation was dose-dependent. Pulsed 405 nm light showed the better antimicrobial effect on E. coli and caused increasing damage of cell membrane. It might be attributed to the ROS production in bacteria.

CONCLUSION

Pulsed light has a potential of improving the efficacy of ABL therapy and is worth to be explored deeply further.

An Approach to Improve Energy Efficiency during Antimicrobial Blue Light Inactivation: Application of Pulse-Width Modulation Dimming to Balance Irradiance and Irradiation Time

Antimicrobial blue light (aBL) is an effective non-destructive inactivation technique and has received increasing attention. Despite its significance, the existing research has not thoroughly delved into the impacts of irradiance and irradiation time on enhancing energy efficiency during aBL inactivation and the explanation of the enhancement effect of pulse exposure. In this paper, a series of Escherichia coli inactivation experiments with different duty cycles, pulse frequencies, and irradiation times were conducted, and the relative concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured under corresponding conditions. A two-dimensional (2-D) Hom model was proposed to evaluate the effect of irradiance and irradiation time. The results show that, compared to continuous exposure, pulsed aBL (duty cycle = 25%) can save ~37% of the energy to achieve the same inactivation effect and generate a 1.95 times higher ROS concentration. The 2-D Hom model obtains the optimal combination of average irradiance and time according to the desired reduction and shows that the irradiation time has a higher weight than the irradiance (1.677 and 1.083, respectively). Therefore, using pulse exposure with a lower average irradiance for a longer period of time can achieve a better inactivation effect when consuming equivalent energy. The proposed pulse-width modulation dimming approach helps promote the application of the aBL technique.