Laser-induced vapor nanobubbles: a new local hotspot in the anti-biofilm landscape?

One of the reasons for the increase in bacterial tolerance to antibiotics is the limited penetration of antibiotics through biofilms. Strategies that overcome the biofilm diffusion barrier by interfering with the dense biofilm architecture are highly sought after. In our study we demonstrated that laser-induced vapor nanobubbles (VNB) can locally disrupt biofilms and enhance the penetration and efficacy of antibiotics. The promise of laser-induced VNB Laser-induced VNB are a photothermal phenomenon in which sensitizing nanoparticles, such as plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNP), are irradiated with high-intensity short laser pulses, causing their temperature to increase by several hundreds of degrees. Consequently, the...