Antibacterial laser

Ultrashort pulse lasers kill bacteria without damaging body cells

Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"

American scientists have discovered that lasers emitting ultrashort pulses of light can kill bacteria resistant to antibiotics, as well as bacterial spores. An article with the results of the study will be available from December 1 on the website of the Journal of Biophotonics (Inactivation of multidrug-resistant bacteria and bacterial spores and generation of high-potency bacterial vaccines using ultrashort pulsed lasers). Previously, researchers have shown that such lasers do not damage human cells, so they can be used, for example, to sterilize wounds, the press service of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reports. 

Viruses and bacteria contain tightly packed protein structures inside, which can be excited by an ultrashort pulse laser. The laser kills bacteria by making these protein structures vibrate until some of their molecular bonds break. Broken ends quickly attach to anything they can find. As a result, there is a complete chaos of incorrect connections within and between proteins, and this disorder stops the normal activity of the protein in microorganisms.

The researchers tested UKI lasers on Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which causes infections of the skin, lungs and other organs and cannot be treated with many medications, and on E. coli, which causes urinary tract infections, diarrhea and wound infections. E. coli produces broad-spectrum beta-lactamases – enzymes, which actively fight the components of antibiotics. The scientists also directed laser radiation at the spores of the wax bacillus (Bacillus cereus), a bacterium that causes food poisoning in humans. Bacillus spores can survive even after heat treatment of products.

In all cases, the lasers killed more than 99.9% of the target organisms, reducing their number by more than 1000 times.

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