Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

3. MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES, Public and environmental health

Abstract

Bioflms are complex microbial communities that present serious contamination risks to our environment and health. In this study, atmospheric air plasma and airborne acoustic ultrasound technology were applied to inactivate Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua bioflms. Both technologies were efcient in controlling, or completely inactivating, the target bacterial bioflms. Viability and metabolic assays, along with microscopy analysis, revealed that atmospheric air plasma and airborne acoustic ultrasound damaged both the bacterial bioflm cells and its structural integrity. Scanning electron microscopy images highlighted the disruption of the bioflms and pore formation in bacterial cells exposed to both the plasma and acoustic treatments. Elevated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in bacterial cells treated with atmospheric air plasma, demonstrated their primary role in the observed bacterial inactivation process. Our fndings provide potential antimicrobial strategies to combat bacterial bioflms in the food and healthcare sectors.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81977-z


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