Bioelectronic Drug-free Control of Opportunistic Pathogens through Selective Excitability.

Authors

Saehyun Kim, Ethan Eig, Jiping Yue, Albert Yang, Colin J Comerci, Megan Laune, Chuanwang Yang, Ananth Kamath, Jiuyun Shi, Pengju Li, Zhe Cheng, Changxu Sun, Tiantian Guo, Vanessa Tian, Gürol M Süel, Bozhi Tian

Published in

Device. Volume 2. Issue 11. Nov 15, 2024. Epub Oct 24, 2024.

Abstract

The natural excitability in mammalian tissues has been extensively exploited for drug-free electroceutical therapies. However, it is unclear whether bacterial residents on the human body are equally excitable and if their excitability can also be leveraged for drug-free bioelectronic treatment. Using a microelectronic platform, we examined the electrical excitability of Staphylococcus epidermidis, a skin-residing bacterium responsible for widespread clinical infections. We discovered that a non-lethal electrical stimulus could excite S. epidermidis, inducing reversible changes in membrane potential. Intriguingly, S. epidermidis became excitable only under acidic skin pH, indicating that the bacteria were 'selective' about the environment in which they display excitability. This selective excitability enabled programmable suppression of biofilm formation using benign stimulation voltages. Lastly, we demonstrated suppression of S. epidermidis on a porcine skin model using a flexible electroceutical patch. Our work shows that the innate excitability of resident bacteria can be selectively activated for drug-free bioelectronic control.

PMID:
40454232
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Jun 2025.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.