Hydrogen peroxide preoxidation as a strategy for enhanced antimicrobial photodynamic action against...

Antimicrobial photodynamic treatment (aPDT) is a photooxidative process based on the excitation of a photosensitizer (PS) in the presence of molecular oxygen, under specific wavelengths of light. It is a promising method for advanced treatment of water and wastewater, particularly targeting disinfection challenges, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). Research in improved aPDT has been exploring new PS materials, and additives in general. Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) a widely applied disinfectant, mostly in the food industry and clinical settings, present environmentally negligible residuals at the usually applied concentrations, making it friendly for the water and wastewater sectors. Here, we explored the effects of preoxidation with H₂O₂ followed by blue light-mediated (450 nm) aPDT using curcumin (a natural-based PS) against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Results of the sequential treatment pointed to a slight hampering in aPDT efficiency at very low H₂O₂ concentrations, followed by an increasing cooperative effect up to a deleterious point (≥7 log₁₀ inactivation in CFU mL^-1), suggesting a synergistic interaction of preoxidation and aPDT. The increased performance in H₂O₂-pretreated aPDT encourages studies of optimal operational conditions for the assisted technology and describes potentials for using the described strategy to tackle the issue of ARB spread.