Plasma-Induced Destruction of Bacterial Cell Wall Components: A Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulation

作者：Maksudbek Yusupov, Annemie Bogaerts, Stijn Huygh, Ramses Snoeckx, Adri C. T. van Duin, Erik Cornelis Neyts · 发表于：The Journal of Physical Chemistry C · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1021/jp3128516 · 被引用次数：198 · 研究领域：Plasma Applications and Diagnostics、Plasma Diagnostics and Applications、Electrohydrodynamics and Fluid Dynamics

Nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasmas are gaining increasing attention for biomedical applications. However, very little fundamental information on the interaction mechanisms between the plasma species and biological cells is currently available. We investigate the interaction of important plasma species, such as OH, H 2 O 2, O, O 3, as well as O 2 and H 2 O, with bacterial peptidoglycan by means of reactive molecular dynamics simulations, aiming for a better understanding of plasma disinfection. Our results show that OH, O, O 3, and H 2 O 2 can break structurally important bonds of peptidoglycan (i.e., C–O, C–N, or C–C bonds), which consequently leads to the destruction of the bacterial cell wall. The mechanisms behind these breakups are, however, dependent on the impinging plasma species, and this also determines the effectiveness of the cell wall destruction.