Microorganisms (Jan 2024)

Cold Atmospheric Helium Plasma in the Post-COVID-19 Era: A Promising Tool for the Disinfection of Silicone Endotracheal Prostheses

  • Diego Morais da Silva,
  • Fellype Do Nascimento,
  • Noala Vicensoto Moreira Milhan,
  • Maria Alcionéia Carvalho de Oliveira,
  • Paulo Francisco Guerreiro Cardoso,
  • Daniel Legendre,
  • Fabio Gava Aoki,
  • Konstantin Georgiev Kostov,
  • Cristiane Yumi Koga-Ito

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12010130
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. 130

Abstract

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Despite the excellent properties of silicone endotracheal prostheses, their main limitation is the formation of a polymicrobial biofilm on their surfaces. It can cause local inflammation, interfering with the local healing process and leading to further complications in the clinical scenario. The present study evaluated the inhibitory effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on multispecies biofilms grown on the silicone protheses’ surfaces. In addition to silicone characterization before and after CAP exposure, CAP cytotoxicity on immortalized human bronchial epithelium cell line (BEAS-2B) was evaluated. The aging time test reported that CAP could temporarily change the silicone surface wetting characteristics from hydrophilic (80.5°) to highly hydrophilic (C. albicans, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa (0.636, 0.738, and 1.445, respectively) was detected after CAP exposure. Multispecies biofilms exposed to CAP showed significant viability reduction for C. albicans and S. aureus (1.385 and 0.831, respectively). The protocol was not cytotoxic to BEAS-2B. CAP can be a simple and effective method to delay multispecies biofilm formation inside the endotracheal prosthesis.

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