UV LEDs are widely applied in medical equipment and household products for sterilization. A Danish research team has further found that by combining treatment with UV irradiation, it helps to increase the effect of bacteria eradication of antibiotics. The light assisted approach can therefore reduce the usage amount of antibiotics.

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The overuse of antibiotics could result in bacterial resistance and in the worst case lead to incurable diseases. In order to prevent this situation, researchers are trying to find alternative treatments to reduce the use of antibiotics. With the awareness of the sterilization function of UV LED, Danish researchers have discovered that an in vitro UV irradiation of specific wavelength is able to eradicate bacteria in the biofilm state more effectively than antibiotics. Moreover, the combination of irradiation and antibiotics would work even better in bacteria eradication, which led to a new concept, light assisted antibiotics, according to the team.

In the research, the team used UV LED with a wavelength range between 249 nm to 338 nm to practice irradiation treatment for killing the bacteria on biofilms. The result indicated that the irradiation works more remarkably with the wavelength range of 292-306 nm and the optimum result was at 296 nm. The research result was published on Scientific Report on November 5th.

By revealing the concept of the light assisted antibiotics method, the study hopes to assist the development of new treatments combining light source and antibiotics to enhance medical improvement in treating biofilm infections.