Plasma-induced destruction of bacterial cell wall components: A reactive molecular dynamics simulation

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, H₂O₂, O, O₃, as well as O ₂ and H₂O, with bacterial peptidoglycan by means of reactive molecular dynamics simulations, aiming for a better understanding of plasma disinfection. Our results show that OH, O, O₃, and H ₂O₂ 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.