Kilohertz-Driven Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet for the Decontamination of Bacterial Biofilms

摘要

Atmospheric pressure plasma has proven to be effective for the inactivation of bacterial cells in many studies. But the vast majority of these studies were performed using free living "planktonic" bacteria and much less attention has been given to bacterial biofilms. Biofilms are recognised to be the predominant mode of bacterial growth and exhibit significantly enhanced tolerance to the conventional methods of treatment relative to planktonic bacteria of the same species. In this study, the activity of an in-house designed atmospheric pressure plasma jet was evaluated against a focused panel of clinically significant bacterial biofilms. The kilohertz-driven jet, operated with helium and oxygen gas admixture, exhibited a marked activity against all investigated biofilms within less than 5 minutes of exposure. This jet has a promise as a novel tool in preventing and controlling of biofilm associated infections.