Bacterial biofilms are a pervasive issue in orthopaedic surgery causing up to 80% of infections. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is a proposed technique for eradication of biofilms, clinical translation requires optimization of treatment parameters. This study assessed the effectiveness of three light spectra in activating photosensitizing porphyrins to kill a dual species biofilm of E. Coli and E. faecalis grown in a microfluidic device. Blue-red, amber, or blue-amber-red light sources were compared at either 30J/cm2 or 60J/cm2 doses given to activate endogenously produced porphyrins after one hour incubation with 10 or 20% 5-ALA in a saline solution. Changes in biomass 24 hours after treatment were measured using confocal microscopy and OCT to determine treatment effectiveness.
Well-organized ecosystems of bacteria colonize orthopaedic devices causing biofilm infections that are notoriously difficult to manage. Biofilms typically exhibit increased resistance to antibiotics leading to treatment failure, and tools for eradicating biofilms that do not increase antibiotic resistance are greatly needed. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is a promising form of treatment to combat clinically relevant biofilms. Exogenous provision of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) to biofilm-forming clinical strains of E. coli, E. faecalis and S. aureus was recently shown by several research groups to result in the accumulation of sufficient quantities of endogenous photosensitizers porphyrins (protoporphyrin IX, coproporphyrin III and others), via the heme biosynthetic pathway, to produce a significant phototoxic effect when exposed to activating light. For clinical translation of this extremely promising approach, here we develop a portable light source for 5-ALA-based aPDT of orthopaedic implant biofilms, spectrally shaped for optimal porphyrin light absorption at wavelengths range approved by FDA for clinical use. After phantom calibration, we tested it on E.coli-E.faecalis biofilms grown in soft lithography-fabricated microfluidic chips and on methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) biofilms grown on titanium and stainless steel orthopaedic hardware in custom-designed macrofluidic devices. Successful in-vitro experiments allowed us to conduct a proof-of-concept validation study in a preclinical rat model of MRSA-contaminated open fracture. Following tibia fracture and two hours of wound infection development, a one hour incubation with 20% 5-ALA and treatment with either 90J/cm2 or three fractions of 30J/cm2 light doses demonstrated 94% and 99% overall reduction of MRSA, respectively, while the temperature of the tissue remained <39°C, below the threshold for thermal damage. The encouraging results suggest further preclinical testing of the developed light source for optimization of aPDT regimen and 5-ALA concentration to reduce the risk of long-term side effects in animal models of contaminated trauma surgery.
In orthopedic trauma surgery, traditional socket-based prostheses are associated with functionally limiting problems affecting 1.7 million amputees in the United States. To improve post-surgical performance and minimize socket-related complications, bone-anchored (osseointegrated) prostheses have been developed. Functionally superior, their widespread implementation has been limited due to infection. In an unacceptable number of patients well-organized biofilm ecosystems of bacteria colonize the osseointegrated implant (OI) and migrate into device-tissue interface, leading to superficial and deep infections, and implant failure. Since the OI implant protrudes through the skin, the site is easily contaminated by microbes. The problem is worsened by increased resistance to antibiotics contributing significantly to surgical outcome failure. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT)—which uses photosensitizers excited with visible light to disrupt biofilms and kill bacteria with produced reactive oxygen species—has been proposed to address this problem. To assess biofilm formation and aPDT effectiveness, we describe a rabbit OI model and steps to investigate the ability of aPDT using 5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-based light therapy to control methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) bacterial infection. As part of an institutionally approved survival surgery, this model involves lower limb amputation at the tibia, OI installation and MRSA inoculation. Within a week of biofilm formation, the optimal aPDT regime of light and 5-ALA dose was applied to the implant-skin interface to eradicate migrating biofilms. We have built a circumferential light source spectrally shaped for optimal photoactivation and cooled without risk of bacteria dispersal. Optical coherence tomography (skin flap healing and side-effects), micro-computed tomography (OI-bone integrity) and bioluminescence (bacterial bioburden before and after aPDT) imaging were used to monitor outcome for up to three weeks post-treatment.
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) bacteria commonly found on orthopaedic implants, form treatment resistant biofilms that are difficult to manage. Creating new imaging modalities that allow us to understand biofilm development and accurately indicate the efficacy of treatments will greatly aid research in biofilm infection treatment methods. In this in vitro study, we determined the correlation between the number of MRSA CFUs and the radiance of MRSA aliquots with bioluminescent plasmids in the resolution volume of the Perkin Elmer’s IVIS Spectrum imaging system at specific imaging depths. We standardized MRSA bioluminescence curves for planktonic and biofilm-associated MRSA grown on titanium and stainless-steel orthopaedic hardware. The ability to relate measured radiance to the biofilm bioburden on a metal surface provides a critical tool for our ongoing pre-clinical studies identifying and treating biofilm-forming infections in contaminated high-energy fracture (rats) and contaminated osseointegration after amputation (rabbits).
Following orthopaedic trauma, bone devitalization is a critical determinant of complications such as infection or nonunion. Intraoperative assessment of bone perfusion has thus far been limited. Furthermore, treatment failure for infected fractures is unreasonably high, owing to the propensity of biofilm to form and become entrenched in poorly vascularized bone. Fluorescence-guided surgery and molecularly-guided surgery could be used to evaluate the viability of bone and soft tissue and detect the presence of planktonic and biofilm-forming bacteria. This proceedings paper discusses the motivation behind developing this technology and our most recent preclinical and clinical results.
Glioblastoma remains the deadliest type of brain tumor: half of patients do not live more than 16 months, even when treated with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Tracking systems can help neurosurgeons precisely identify tumor on MRI images. Nevertheless, the tumor often regrows a few centimeters from where the original tumor was. This is because at the time of the first surgery, the actual tumor cells are already invading the healthy tissue around the tumor. These ‘invaders’ are difficult to cut out because even when looking through the surgical microscope, the tumor margins and normal brain tissue look very similar. The emerging utilization of fluorescing biomarkers (e.g., 5-ALA) sensitive to genetic downregulation present in cancer cells improves the detectability of marginal glioma, albeit requiring to switch to the surgical microscope excitation (blue light) mode and dim the operation room lights, imposing difficulties for neurosurgeons and staff. Here, we present a portable fluorescence-guided surgery optical imaging system integrated into the conventional surgical microscope to give neurosurgeons a better tool to predict which tissue is normal and which contains the start of tumor invasion without the need to switch to the excitation mode. The system operates under the microscope’s white light illumination using pulsed fluorophore excitation with gated acquisition and provides helpful tumor tissue fluorescing contrast. Tissue-mimicking phantom imaging confirmed protoporphyrin IX detection down to 0.1μg/mL concentration. Brain tissue imaging ex-vivo and pre-clinical intracranial tumor resection demonstrated the system’s capability to provide a typical operating environment with auxiliary or augmented visualization of PpIX possible.
Accurate and reliable non-invasive monitoring of early systemic disease—such as ongoing hemorrhage, sepsis, and acute respiratory disease like COVID-19—is one of the largest unmet needs in biomedicine. An early alert to progression with high sensitivity and an acceptable false-positive rate would allow medical staff to risk-stratify patients, saving resources, lives, and in the context of pandemic disease, minimize staff exposure. Noninvasive technologies have thus far failed to produce a reliable early detection system, reflecting the limitation of uniplex approaches to describe complex pathophysiology. Our team, in collaboration with an STTR start-up, have developed an optico-impedance system combining near-infrared spectroscopy and electrical impedance tomography measured at three locations (thorax, abdomen, limb) together with machine learning methods to provide exceptional diagnostic performance in systemic disease. The optical portion consists of 6 pairs of time-multiplexed red and IR LEDs embedded in custom 3D-printed probes, which are each connected to the leg of a trifurcated fiber bundle, allowing measurement of three-location, two-distance broadband 550-950 nm spectra using a single commercial spectrometer. Data is demultiplexed and analyzed using derivative spectroscopy to quantify oxy/deoxyhemoglobin. Additional diagnostic signal was obtained from: impedance tomography and spectroscopy, ECG and plethysmography. In one of the largest porcine hemorrhage studies to date (n = 60), we demonstrate an 85% accuracy to detect a 2-3% blood volume loss. Preliminary results from 11 healthy human subjects undergoing lower body negative pressure (LBNP) challenge show a 95% accuracy in detecting 15-mmHg changes in pressure—an excellent surrogate for occult hemorrhage. Our system fills a critical need, including in the current pandemic, where clinicians struggle to predict which patients will deteriorate.
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