Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism is an “old school” reliable technique for swift microbial community screening in anaerobic digestion

The microbial community in anaerobic digestion has been analysed through microbial fingerprinting techniques, such as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), for decades. In the last decade, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has replaced these techniques, but the time-consuming and complex nature of high-throughput techniques is a potential bottleneck for full-scale anaerobic digestion application, when monitoring community dynamics. Here, the bacterial and archaeal TRFLP profiles were compared with 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles (Illumina platform) of 25 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. The α-diversity analysis revealed a higher richness based on Illumina data, compared with the TRFLP data. This coincided with a clear difference in community organisation, Pareto distribution, and co-occurrence network statistics, i.e., betweenness centrality and normalised degree. The β-diversity analysis showed a similar clustering profile for the Illumina, bacterial TRFLP and archaeal TRFLP data, based on different distance measures and independent of phylogenetic identification, with pH and temperature as the two key operational parameters determining microbial community composition. The combined knowledge of temporal dynamics and projected clustering in the β-diversity profile, based on the TRFLP data, distinctly showed that TRFLP is a reliable technique for swift microbial community dynamics screening in full-scale anaerobic digestion plants

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism is an “old school” reliable technique for swift microbial community screening in anaerobic digestion

The microbial community in anaerobic digestion has been analysed through microbial fingerprinting techniques, such as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), for decades. In the last decade, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has replaced these techniques, but the time-consuming and complex nature of high-throughput techniques is a potential bottleneck for full-scale anaerobic digestion application, when monitoring community dynamics. Here, the bacterial and archaeal TRFLP profiles were compared with 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles (Illumina platform) of 25 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. The α-diversity analysis revealed a higher richness based on Illumina data, compared with the TRFLP data. This coincided with a clear difference in community organisation, Pareto distribution, and co-occurrence network statistics, i.e., betweenness centrality and normalised degree. The β-diversity analysis showed a similar clustering profile for the Illumina, bacterial TRFLP and archaeal TRFLP data, based on different distance measures and independent of phylogenetic identification, with pH and temperature as the two key operational parameters determining microbial community composition. The combined knowledge of temporal dynamics and projected clustering in the β-diversity profile, based on the TRFLP data, distinctly showed that TRFLP is a reliable technique for swift microbial community dynamics screening in full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. © 2018, The Author(s)

Atmospheric pressure plasma and depositions of antibacterial coatings

Healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) are complications of healthcare that result in elevated patient morbidity and mortality. HCAI present a huge financial burden for patients, hospitals and insurers due to extended hospitalisation and associated care. According to the estimations, in the US alone, HCAI affects approximately 2 million patients annually, of whom approximately 90.000 patients die, with an estimated annual cost estimated to range from 28 billion to 45 billion US$. [1] European Union is facing the similar situation, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and control (ECDC) advice that approximately 4.1 million acute care patients acquire a HCAI annually, with 37.000 deaths directly attributed to HCAI. With increasing prevalence of HCAI across European countries and threatening development of antimicrobial resistance to widely used antibiotics, there is a recognised need for novel approach in battle against this healthcare burden [2]. One of the approaches involves a development and fabrication of materials with antimicrobial properties. Usually, these are coatings with integrated antibacterial agent that is responsible for the elimination of microorganisms that come into contact with active surface. There is a variety of different antibacterial compounds integrated in such coatings, such as different antibiotics, chemical compounds, peptides. Recently, metal nanoparticles (NPs) have been increasingly used in designing coatings with antibacterial properties due to their large surface-to-volume ration, physiochemical properties and biological multi-target mechanism of actions. Besides all beneficial properties of NPs their emergence of cytotoxicity is limiting their practical applications in human body. [3-4] To overcome this drawback it is important to design a new class of antibacterial coatings with firmly embedded NPs that allows controlled release of antimicrobial agent into the microenvironment. Atmospheric pressure plasma technology has shown a big promise as an alternative and cost-efficient method for deposition of coatings with antibacterial properties. This contribution explores the potential of plasma-assisted approach for fabrication of antibacterial coatings, containing different metal NPs on medical textiles. Plasma-assisted deposition of coatings was carried out with so-called ˝sandwich technique˝, where nanoparticles were embedded between two layers in order to tailor the desirable ion release and to prolong antibacterial effect of fabrics. Antibacterial effects of different nano-coatings were tested against G+ and G- bacterial species, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively. Besides antibacterial properties, potential cytotoxic effects were also studied. The study demonstrates that atmospheric pressure plasma can be an efficient technique for deposition of antibacterial coatings containing metal NPs. Medical textiles with plasma-assisted nano-coatings showed effective antibacterial properties. The choice of proper metal antimicrobial agent and optimal concentration of NPs should be considered in regards to potential cytotoxic effects when these materials would be used in medical environments.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Antibacterial nanocomposites based on Ag NPs and HMDSO deposited by atmospheric pressure plasma

The development of new multifunctional coatings with antimicrobial properties has a special interest in several applications for pharmaceutical and medical products. This work reports on the deposition of antimicrobial coatings based on silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedded in an organosilicon film onto woven and nonwoven textiles. The Ag nanoparticles admixed with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) vapours are introduced by means of an atomizer system in the remote discharge of an atmospheric pressure plasma source operating in argon. The chemical properties and the surface morphology of the coatings with antimicrobial potential are discussed.This work was performed within the M-ERA-NET project PlasmaTex, contract 31/2016/ UEFISCDI. The financial support from the Ministry of Research and Innovation under the Nucleus contract 4N/2016 is gratefully acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fame and future of faecal transplantations - developing next-generation therapies with synthetic microbiomes

Peer reviewe

DBD plasma treatment and chitosan layers - A green method for stabilization of silver nanoparticles on polyamide 6.6

The addition of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to biomedical textiles can be of great interest to protect the materials against microorganisms and prevent their spread. However, the human and environmental over‐exposure to AgNPs is leading to numerous concerns due to their toxicity. In this work, AgNPs were stabilized onto polyamide 6.6 fabrics (PA66) through atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment and the use of chitosan (Ch) layers applied by spray. DBD plasma treatment revealed a crucial role in AgNPs adhesion (4.8 and 6.3 At%). A first layer of Ch decreased the AgNPs adhesion in both untreated and DBD plasma‐treated samples but treated samples show higher concentration (1.7 and 4.1 At%). The antibacterial activity was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli after 2 and 24 h, showing a superior action in all samples with DBD plasma treatment after 24 h. The Ch in the first layers of the composites delayed the antimicrobial action of the samples but it also may enhance antimicrobial action. The obtained coatings will allow the development of novel and safe wound dressings with improved AgNPs deposition, controlled ions released and consequently, manage the antimicrobial performance and minimize the AgNPs side effects

Antimicrobial efficacy of low concentration PVP-silver nanoparticles deposited on DBD plasma-treated polyamide 6,6 fabric

In this study, a low concentration (10 μg·mL−1) of poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)-coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were deposited by spray and exhaustion (30, 70 and 100 ◦C) methods onto untreated and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma-treated polyamide 6,6 (PA66) fabric. DBD plasma-treated samples showed higher AgNP deposition than untreated ones for all methods. After five washing cycles, only DBD plasma-treated samples displayed AgNPs on the fabric surface. The best-performing method was exhaustion at 30 ◦C, which exhibited less agglomeration and the best antibacterial efficacy against S. aureus (4 log reduction). For E. coli, the antimicrobial effect showed good results in all the exhaustion samples (5 log reduction). Considering the spray method, only the DBD plasma-treated samples showed some bacteriostatic activity for both strains, but the AgNP concentration was not enough to have a bactericidal effect. Our results suggest DBD plasma may be a low cost and chemical-free method for the preparation of antibacterial textiles, allowing for the immobilization of a very low—but effective—concentration of AgNPs.This work was funded by European Regional Development funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) – COMPETE and by National Funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)—under the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and UID/CTM/00264/2019. Isabel Ribeiro (SFRH/BD/137668/2018) acknowledges FCT, Portugal, for its doctoral grant financial support. A. Zille also acknowledges financial support of the FCT through an Investigator FCT Research contract (IF/00071/2015) and the project PTDC/CTM-TEX/28295/2017 financed by FCT, FEDER and POCI in the frame of the Portugal 2020 program

The environment within : how gut microbiota may influence metabolism and body composition

Peer reviewe

Double Dielectric Barrier (DBD) plasma-assisted deposition of chemical stabilized nanoparticles on polyamide 6,6 and polyester fabrics

The development of new multifunctional textiles containing nanoparticles (NPs) has had a special interest in several applications for pharmaceutical, medical, engineering, agricultural, and food products.[1-2] Cu, Zn and especially Ag NPs exhibit strong antibacterial activities on a broad spectrum of bacteria.[3-5] Most of the antimicrobial textiles coated with NPs are not able to perform a controlled release of the antibiotic species. Thus, the immobilization of NPs in the substrate or its inclusion in polymeric matrix is essential to control the NPs antibiotic effect with time. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma technology is one of the most effective non-thermal plasma sources.[6] However, an even dispersion and coating of NPs onto fabrics remain a challenge due to the high degree of aggregation of metal NPs.[7] Some capping agents were described to increase the suspension stability such as citrate and SDS.[8] In this work, Ag, Zn, and Cu NPs deposition on DBD plasma pre-treated polyamide 6,6 (PA66) and polyester (PES) were tested for the production of durable antibacterial textiles. SEM-EDX analysis and the effect of some NPs stabilizers (e.g. sodium citrate, sodium alginate and Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)) was analysed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) in term of size, polydispersity index and zeta potential. XPS analyses prove the DBD efficacy in providing oxygen species onto the fabric’s surfaces. The SEM analyses prove the deposition of the Ag and Cu NPs onto the PES and PA66 fabrics. No zinc was detected. However, antimicrobial tests in PES shows that all the NPs have an antimicrobial effect but Cu and Zn show activity only in S. aureus and Ag only in E.coli. Cu shows a reasonable dispersion onto the fibres but PVP coated AgNPs display a high level of aggregation even after 1 hour of ultrasonic treatment. To solve instability and aggregation problems, NPs suspensions were prepared in different concentrations (1, 2.5 and 5 wt%) of citrate, alginate and PVA using water and ethanol as control by ultrasonic bath. In table 1 are resumed the best results obtained for each NP compared to water as control. Ethanol and PVA were disregarded due to the highest instability and lowest ζ potential, respectively. XPS, SEM and antimicrobial data shows lack in coating uniformity. It is clear that doesn't exist a univocal dispersant and concentration for all NPs. Despite the improving in ζ potentials and stability of the colloids, the obtained sizes still show a high degree of aggregation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio