Efficacy of UVC-LED in water disinfection on Bacillus species with consideration of antibiotic resistance issue

Abstract

Ultraviolet light emitting diode (UV-LED) has attracted extensive attention as a new technology to replace traditional mercury lamp for water disinfection. This study reported for the first time the application of UVC-LEDs in range of 200-280 nm for the treatment of two Gram-positive tetracycline resistant bacteria (TRB) from Bacillus species and their tetracycline resistant gene (TRG). The results showed that UVC-LEDs can inactivate TRB up to 5.7-log and inhibit TRG expression, especially at 268 nm. The required fluence was approximate to that of the referential non-resistant bacteria using the same UVC-LED, but far less than that of TRB using mercury lamp. After UVC-LED irradiation, photoreactivation was the dominant mechanism to repair TRB, just like non-resistant bacteria. But contrary to non-resistant bacteria, the regrowth ratio of TRB was remarkably high at 24 h since the end of the irradition, nevertheless the number of the regrown bacteria in the irradiated water was still less than that in the non-irradiated water. Whereas TRB restored resistance after repair even applying 268 nm at a fluence up to 46.08 mJ/cm² (maximum in this study). This study highlights the merits of UVC-LED to effectively inactivate TRB in a prompt, energy-efficient and resistance-reducing way, while future study on TRB regrowth and resistance resilience is needed.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Bacillus; Disinfection; Tetracycline; UVC-LED.