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Boehm, Daniela
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Boehm, Daniela
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Boehm, Daniela
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 13
- PublicationCorrigendum: Biomolecules as Model Indicators of In Vitro and In Vivo Cold Plasma Safety(Frontiers Media, 2021-04-14)
; ; ; ; In the original article, the reference for [16] was incorrectly written as “Khlyustova A, Jarzina F, Brinckmann S. Important parameters in plasma jets for the production of RONS in liquids for plasma medicine: a brief review. Front Chem Sci Eng (2019) 13:238–52. doi: 10.1007/s11705-019- 1801-8.” This should be “Khlyustova A, Labay C, Machala Z, Ginebra MP, Canal C. Important parameters in plasma jets for the production of RONS in liquids for plasma medicine: a brief review. Front Chem Sci Eng (2019) 13:238–52. doi: 10.1007/s11705-019-1801-8.” Further, the reference for [17] was incorrectly written as “Labay C, Shimizu T, Thomas HM, Morfill GE. Enhanced generation of reactive species by cold plasma in gelatin solutions for selective cancer cell death. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces (2020) 12(42):47256–69. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c12930.” This should be “Labay, C, Roldán, M, Tampieri, F, Stancampiano, A, Escot Bocanegra, P, Ginebra, MP, Canal, C. Enhanced generation of reactive species by cold plasma in gelatin solutions for selective cancer cell death. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces (2020) 12(42):47256–69. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c12930.” The authors apologize for these errors and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.92 - PublicationAssessing the Biological Safety of Atmospheric Cold Plasma Treated Wheat Using Cell and Insect Models(MDPI, 2020-07-08)
; ; ; ; Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is under investigation for an extensive range of biocontrol applications in food biosystems. However, the development of a novel intervention technology requires a thorough evaluation of the potential for negative effects and the implications for the human and animal food chains' safety. The evaluations were performed using a contained, high-voltage, dielectric barrier discharge plasma system. The cytotoxicity of two types of food models-a liquid model (wheat model medium (WMM)) vs. a solid model (wheat grain extract (WGE)) was compared in vitro using the mammalian cell line CHO-K1. The residual toxicity of ACP treatment of grains for food purposes was assessed using the invertebrate model Tribolium castaneum, by feeding the beetles with flour produced from ACP-treated wheat grains. The cytotoxic effects and changes in the chemistry of the ACP-treated samples were more pronounced in samples treated in a liquid form as opposed to actual wheat grains. The feeding trial using T. castaneum demonstrated no negative impacts on the survivability or weight profiles of insects. Investigations into the interactions of plasma-generated species with secondary metabolites in the food matrices are necessary to ensure the safety of plasma for food applications.91Scopus© Citations 6 - PublicationEfficacy of Cold Plasma for Direct Deposition of Antibiotics as a Novel Approach for Localized Delivery and Retention of EffectAntimicrobial coating of medical devices has emerged as a potentially effective tool to prevent or ameliorate device-related infections. In this study the plasma deposition process for direct deposition of pharmaceutical drugs on to a range of surfaces and the retention of structure function relationship and antimicrobial efficacy against mono-species biofilms were investigated. Two selected sample antibiotics—ampicillin and gentamicin, were deposited onto two types of surfaces—polystyrene microtiter plates and stainless steel coupons. The antimicrobial efficacy of the antibiotic-coated surfaces was tested against challenge populations of both planktonic and sessile Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with responses monitored for up to 14 days. The plasma deposition process bonded the antibiotic to the surfaces, with localized retention of antibiotic activity. The antibiotics deposited on the test surfaces retained a good efficacy against planktonic cells, and importantly prevented biofilm formation of attached cells for up to 96 h. The antibiotic rapidly eluted from the surface of antibiotic-coated surfaces to the surrounding medium, with retention of effect in this surrounding milieu for up to 2 weeks. Control experiments established that there was no independent antimicrobial or growth promoting effect of the plasma deposition process, where there was no antibiotic in the helium plasma assisted delivery stream. Apart from the flexibility offered through deposition on material surfaces, there was no additive or destructive effect associated with the helium assisted plasma deposition process on the antibiotic. The plasma assisted process was a viable mean of coating clinically relevant materials and developing innovative functional materials with retention of antibiotic activity, without employing a linker or plasma modified polymer, thus minimizing bio-compatibility issues for medical device materials. This offers potential to prevent or control instrumented or non-permanent device associated infection localized to the surgical or implant site.
81Scopus© Citations 5 - PublicationThe Effect of Atmospheric Cold Plasma on Bacterial Stress Responses and Virulence Using Listeria monocytogenes Knockout Mutants(Frontiers Media, 2019-12-11)
; ; ; ; Listeria monocytogenes is an opportunistic intracellular pathogen commonly associated with serious infections and multiple food-borne outbreaks. In this study, we investigated the influence of atmospheric cold plasma (80 kV, 50 Hz) on L. monocytogenes (EGD-e) and its knockout mutants of sigB, rsbR, prfA, gadD, and lmo0799 genes at different treatment time intervals. Further, to ascertain if sub-lethal environmental stress conditions could influence L. monocytogenes survival and growth responses, atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) resistance was evaluated for the cultures exposed to cold (4°C) or acid (pH 4) stress for 1 h. The results demonstrate that both wild-type and knockout mutants were similarly affected after 1 min exposure to ACP (p > 0.05), with a difference in response noted only after 3 min of treatment. While all L. monocytogenes strains exposed to acid/cold stress were hypersensitive to ACP treatment and were significantly reduced or inactivated within 1 min of treatment (p < 0.05). The results indicate sigB and prfA are important for general stress resistance and biofilm, respectively, loss of these two genes significantly reduced bacterial resistance to ACP treatment. In addition, exposure to sub-lethal 1min ACP increased the gene expression of stress associated genes. SigB showed the highest gene expression, increasing by 15.60 fold, followed by gadD2 (7.19) and lmo0799 (8.6) after 1 min exposure. Overall, an increase in gene expression was seen in all stress associated genes analyzed both at 1 min treatment; while long treatment time reduced the gene expression and some cases down-regulated prfA and gadD3 gene expression. By comparing the response of mutants under ACP exposure to key processing parameters, the experimental results presented here provide a baseline for understanding the bacterial genetic response and resistance to cold plasma stress and offers promising insights for optimizing ACP applications.118Scopus© Citations 12 - PublicationBiomolecules as Model Indicators of In Vitro and In Vivo Cold Plasma Safety(Frontiers Media, 2021-01-14)
; ; ; ; The potential applications for cold plasma in medicine are extensive, from microbial inactivation and induction of apoptosis in cancer cells to stimulating wound healing and enhancing the blood coagulation cascade. The safe bio-medical application of cold plasma and subsequent effect on complex biological pathways requires precision and a distinct understanding of how physiological redox chemistry is manipulated. Chemical modification of biomolecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids treated with cold plasma have been characterized, however, the context of how alterations of these molecules affect cell behavior or in vivo functionality has not been determined. Thus, this study examines the cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of plasma-treated molecules in vitro using CHO-K1 cells and in vivo in Galleria mellonella larvae. Specifically, albumin, glucose, cholesterol, and arachidonic acid were chosen as representative biomolecules, with established involvement in diverse bioprocesses including; cellular respiration, intracellular transport, cell signaling or membrane structure. Long- and short-term effects depended strongly on the molecule type and the treatment milieu indicating the impact of chemical and physical modifications on downstream biological pathways. Importantly, absence of short-term toxicity did not always correlate with absence of longer-term effects, indicating the need to comprehensively assess ongoing effects for diverse biological applications.67Scopus© Citations 1 - PublicationEfficacy of cold plasma functionalised water for improving microbiological safety of fresh produce and wash water recyclingAtmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is an effective method for microbiological decontamination. This study evaluated an alternative water-based decontamination approach for inactivation of bacterial population from fresh produce and in the wash water generated from fresh produce washing. The study characterised ACP inactivation of attached Listeria innocua and Pseudomonas fluorescens inoculated on lettuce in comparison to chlorine treatment. P. fluorescens was sensitive to ACP treatment and was reduced below detection limit within 3 min of treatment. L. innocua population was reduced by ∼2.4 Log10 CFU/g after 5 min of treatment; showing similar inactivation efficacy to chlorine treatment. The microbial load in wash water was continuously decreased and was below detection limits after 10 min of ACP treatment. Micro-bubbling along with agitation assisted the bacterial detachment and distribution of reactive species, thus increasing bacterial inactivation efficacy from fresh produce and wash water. A shift in pH of plasma functionalised water was observed along with high concentration of nitrate and ozone with a relative amount of nitrites which increased with plasma exposure time. Further, L. innocua treated at different independent pH conditions showed minimal or no effect of pH on ACP bacterial inactivation efficacy. Aqueous ACP treatment poses a promising alternative for decontamination of fresh produce and the associated wash-waters which could be applied in the food industry to replace continuous chlorine dosing of process waters.
25Scopus© Citations 40 - PublicationHigh voltage atmospheric cold air plasma control of bacterial biofilms on fresh produce(Elsevier, 2019-03-16)
; ; ; ; ; Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) offers great potential for decontamination of food borne pathogens. This study examined the antimicrobial efficacy of ACP against a range of pathogens of concern to fresh produce comparing planktonic cultures, monoculture biofilms (Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas fluorescens) and mixed culture biofilms (Listeria monocytogenes and Pseudomonas fluorescens). Biotic and abiotic surfaces commonly occurring in the fresh food industry were investigated. Microorganisms showed varying susceptibility to ACP treatment depending on target and process factors. Bacterial biofilm populations treated with high voltage (80 kV) ACP were reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in both mono- and mixed species biofilms after 60 s of treatment and yielded non-detectable levels after extending treatment time to 120 s. However, an extended time was required to reduce the challenge mixed culture biofilm of L. monocytogenes and P. fluorescens inoculated on lettuce, which was dependent on biofilm formation conditions and substrate. Contained treatment for 120 s reduced L. monocytogenes and P. fluorescens inoculated as mixed cultures on lettuce (p < 0.05) by 2.2 and 4.2 Log 10 CFU/ml respectively. When biofilms were grown at 4 °C on lettuce, there was an increased resistance to ACP treatment by comparison with biofilm grown at temperature abuse conditions of 15 °C. Similarly, L. monocytogenes and P. fluorescens exposed to cold stress (4 °C) for 1 h demonstrated increased tolerance to ACP treatment compared to non-stressed cells. These finding demonstrates that bacterial form, mono versus mixed challenges as well as environmental stress conditions play an important role in ACP inactivation efficacy.38Scopus© Citations 42 - PublicationSafety evaluation of plasma-treated lettuce broth using in vitro and in vivo toxicity models(IOP Publishing, 2020-05-06)
; ; ; ; Cold atmospheric plasma is a promising new non-thermal technology for improving the microbiological safety and shelf-life of food products, particularly fresh produce and minimally processed fruit and vegetables. Limited research has been conducted on the safety of plasma-treated foods for human or animal consumption. This study focuses on basic safety studies by investigating lettuce broth treated with a di-electric barrier discharge plasma device as a fresh produce model in terms of in vitro cytotoxic and mutagenic effects on mammalian cells and its in vivo toxicity on Galleria mellonella larvae. Low cytotoxic effects were detected in vitro and mutagenic events were likely to be spontaneous mutations. However, a strong response of G. mellonella larvae to injection with plasma-treated lettuce broth was observed for 5-min-treated broth, with larvae survival of less than 10%. No significant effects on quality attributes such as colour were detected and only low concentrations of peroxide were generated in the broth. This study highlights the need for more detailed investigations into the impact of plasma treatment on food components and the subsequent in vitro and in vivo effects to ensure safe implementation of plasma technology for the processing of food products.113Scopus© Citations 7 - PublicationTemperature Stability and Effectiveness of Plasma-Activated Liquids over an 18 Months PeriodNon-buffered plasma-activated liquids such as water and saline have shown bactericidal effects. In the present study, we investigated the anti-bacterial efficacy and stability of plasma-activated water (PAW) and plasma-activated saline (PAS), generated using a high voltage dielectric barrier discharge system. This study compares the potential of non-buffered plasma-activated liquids (PAL) for the inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) after storage of the solutions at five different temperatures for a storage time up to 18 months after their generation. The temperatures used were room temperature, 4◦ C, −16◦ C, −80◦ C, −150◦ C. Both PAW and PAS achieved 6 log reduction for both bacteria on the first day of their generation after 60 min contact time and they retained these effects after 18 months when stored at the lowest temperatures. Chemical analysis of PAL showed that plasma caused a drop in pH, generation of reactive oxygen species and nitrates, whereas no nitrites are detected in the system used. The concentrations of chemical species were affected by the storage at different temperatures and a thermocouple probe was used to investigate the freezing behaviour of the PAL.
93Scopus© Citations 17 - PublicationEffects of cold plasma on wheat grain microbiome and antimicrobial efficacy against challenge pathogens and their resistanceThe safety and quality of cereal grain supplies are adversely impacted by microbiological contamination, with novel interventions required to maximise whole grains safety and stability. The microbiological contaminants of wheat grains and the efficacy of Atmospheric Cold Plasma (ACP) for potential to control these risks were investigated. The evaluations were performed using a contained reactor dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system; samples were treated for 0–20 min using direct and indirect plasma exposure. Amplicon-based metagenomic analysis using bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal 18S rRNA gene with internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was performed to characterize the change in microbial community composition in response to ACP treatment. The antimicrobial efficacy of ACP against a range of bacterial and fungal contaminants of wheat, was assessed to include individual isolates from grains as challenge pathogens. ACP influenced wheat microbiome composition, with a higher microbial diversity as well as abundance found on the untreated control grain samples. Culture and genomic approaches revealed different trends for mycoflora detection and control. A challenge study demonstrated that using direct mode of plasma exposure with 20 min of treatment significantly reduced the concentration of all pathogens. Overall, reduction levels for B. atrophaeus vegetative cells were higher than for all fungal species tested, whereas B. atrophaeus spores were the most resistant to ACP among all microorganisms tested. Of note, repeating sub-lethal plasma treatment did not induce resistance to ACP in either B. atrophaeus or A. flavus spores. ACP process control could be tailored to address diverse microbiological risks for grain stability and safety.
60Scopus© Citations 14