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Use of CBOT for the Disinfection of Airborne Microorganisms

One of the most important challenges people face is ensuring air quality. Breathing unhealthy air over time can lead to serious health issues. High levels of air pollutants, such as dust and microorganisms, pose significant health hazards for living beings. The fight against microorganisms that threaten our health is becoming increasingly important. Dust, bacteria, viruses, and other harmful elements present in outdoor air can sometimes enter enclosed spaces through ventilation systems, negatively affecting indoor air quality.

Viruses ranging from 0.003 to 0.06 microns and bacteria with a diameter of 0.45 microns present serious health threats in enclosed environments. In particular, improper ventilation systems used in buildings equipped with new-generation technologies can lead to severe health problems. In fully isolated buildings, poor air quality caused by flooring materials, paints, and electrical devices, combined with ventilation system issues, exposes individuals to significant health risks.

According to reports from the World Health Organization, modern individuals spend approximately 90% of their time indoors—70% at work and 20% at home. Experts state that sick building syndrome manifests as a set of temporary or general symptoms that arise from living or working in certain buildings. They emphasize that individuals experience symptomatic illnesses and point out that the root cause of the issue may be the building itself or the services provided within it, leading to health concerns.

Figure 1: Penicillin Chemical Formulation

Airborne Transmissible Microorganisms

A great deal of research has been conducted to identify potentially hazardous and dangerous microorganisms and to develop methods to eliminate them from the environment. There are several key requirements for these microorganisms:

  1. High morbidity and lethality rates.
  2. Highly contagious microbes or extremely toxic substances.
  3. The ability to actively and widely disperse in an area with ease.
  4. High resistance to environmental conditions after dispersion.

Pathogens can be transmitted through the air. It is possible to find examples such as the respiratory syndrome virus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, Coxiella burnetii, and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, which can be carried several kilometers by the wind (1-5). Studies have shown that air filters can reduce the presence of viruses or bacteria by 50% to 63%, depending on the type of pathogen (6). However, although air filtration helps minimize the risk of airborne pathogen transmission and reduces pathogen loads in indoor air by recirculating the air, the desired success in combating microorganisms has not yet been fully achieved (7-13). Since airborne dust and microorganisms can cause serious health problems in humans and act as carriers of pathogens, microorganism control is a crucial health concern.

Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins that spread through air, water, or food can pose significant health risks. In this context, some of these microorganisms stand out due to their deadly nature or their ability to spread easily (14-17).

1) Gram-negative bacteria

Some airborne gram-negative bacteria include:

  • Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia (rabbit fever), a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease.
  • Brucella melitensis, a gram-negative bacterium responsible for infectious brucellosis in sheep and goats. In cattle and humans, it causes fever, sweating, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, weight loss, and depression.
  • Yersinia pestis, which infects humans and other animals, causing plague or “Black Death.” This disease primarily affects rodents and other wild mammals and is often fatal when transmitted to humans through flea bites. Human Yersinia infections can take three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic plague.
  • Burkholderia pseudomallei, which causes glanders in animals and melioidosis in humans, with a fatality rate of 20-50% (18).

2) Gram-positive bacteria

  • Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most well-known airborne bacteria, is frequently found in the human respiratory tract and skin. It can cause skin infections and respiratory diseases and spreads infections through the production of powerful protein toxins, as illustrated in Figure 1. Additionally, S. aureus is a common antibiotic-resistant strain, making it a major issue in hospitals.
  • Streptococcus pyogenes, which causes severe infections, including sepsis and osteomyelitis. It releases hemoglobin and performs hemolysis (19).

3) Spore-forming bacteria

  • Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis are gram-positive bacteria that produce highly resistant endospores, making them easy to spread. B. cereus is commonly transmitted through food, while B. thuringiensis produces toxic intracellular protein crystals that are lethal to insect larvae. B. anthracis causes anthrax, a severe and often fatal disease. Additionally, these bacteria can produce similar spores (20,21).

4) Dangerous viruses

Highly dangerous viruses include:

  • Variola virus, the etiological agent of smallpox, which has a 20-30% mortality rate and remains infectious for days in vesicle fluid and dried scabs from skin lesions.
  • Ebola virus, which causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and primates, with fatality rates ranging from 80-90%.
  • Lassa virus, which causes Lassa fever, an endemic disease in West Africa that infects approximately 2 million people annually, resulting in 5,000-10,000 deaths each year (22).

5) Neurotoxic bacteria

  • Clostridium botulinum is a gram-positive anaerobic bacterium responsible for botulism. It produces the most potent neurotoxin known, which promotes neuromuscular weakness or paralysis (23).
Figure 1: A Schematic Representation of the Mechanism of Action of Several Bacterial Toxins.

(A) Damage to cellular membranes by Staphylococcus aureus toxin. After binding and oligomerization, the stem of the mushroom-shaped heptameric toxin penetrates the target cell, disrupting membrane permeability as indicated by the influx and efflux of ions represented by red and green circles.

(B) Inhibition of protein synthesis by Shiga toxins (Stx). The holotoxin, consisting of an enzymatically active (A) subunit and five binding (B) subunits, enters cells via the globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) receptor. The N-glycosidase activity of the (A) subunit then removes an adenosine residue from 28S rRNA, halting protein synthesis.

(C) Examples of bacterial toxins that activate secondary messenger pathways. The binding of heat-stable enterotoxins (ST) to a guanylate cyclase receptor increases cyclic GMP (cGMP) levels, negatively affecting electrolyte flow. Through ADP-ribosylation or glucosylation, Clostridium botulinum’s C3 exoenzyme (C3) and Clostridium difficile toxins A and B (CdA and CdB) inactivate small Rho GTP-binding proteins. Meanwhile, the cytotoxic necrotizing factor (CNF) of E. coli and the dermonecrotic toxin (DNT) of Bordetella species activate Rho through deamidation.

Air Disinfection with CBOT

The true value of antibiotics goes beyond preventing death and disease caused by infections; because antibiotics allow serious iatrogenic attacks that keep complication rates low in cancer treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or in organ transplants (4). Therefore, antibiotics are an extremely valuable resource across the entire spectrum of modern medicine (5). However, multi-drug-resistant and pandrug-resistant bacterial strains and the infections they cause have become emerging threats to public health worldwide (6). These infections are associated with nearly twice as high mortality rates and significantly longer hospital stays (7). Treating infections caused by antibiotic-resistant microbes is often exceptionally difficult due to a limited number of treatment options (8). Therefore, there is an urgent need for extensive research into alternative antimicrobial approaches to kill multi-drug-resistant strains, focusing on methods with a low likelihood of causing resistance development (9-11). Recently, Karen Bush and colleagues pointed out that new non-antibiotic approaches for preventing and treating infectious diseases should be recognized as high-priority international research and development goals (12).

A promising, innovative approach to achieving this goal is the use of light-based methods to neutralize pathogenic and resistant microbes infecting live tissue without causing unacceptable damage to that tissue. Airborne microbial diseases represent one of the greatest challenges to global public health. Common examples include bacterial-based airborne diseases like influenza, which appears in both seasonal and pandemic forms, and tuberculosis, which is increasingly seen in drug-resistant forms.

The emergence of bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics presents a significant challenge to human health. One of the most common bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, has developed resistance to β-lactams, and its vancomycin-resistant counterpart has been isolated from infected patients around the world. Other species, such as Streptococcus pyogenes, are highly virulent and can result in death within as little as 48 hours due to systemic infection. These issues necessitate the development of broad-based alternative strategies for the neutralization of drug-resistant biological pathogens.

Various studies have shown that UVC radiation can eliminate harmful microorganisms in the air (24). UVC radiation is highly mutagenic to microorganisms, meaning it has a disruptive effect on their continuity. The active functioning of this effect depends on the dose (J/m²), which is determined by UVC intensity (W/m²), exposure time (s), wavelength (254 nm), relative humidity, and microorganism sensitivity (25-27).

C-Bot is an effective UVC disinfecting robot. C-Bot is a remote-controlled disinfection device enhanced with UVC light known for its effect on microorganisms, and it is effective on negatively charged air and contaminated surface areas. Its smart computing algorithm allows C-Bot to calculate the required time for each task based on the disinfection level and surface area. The use of C-Bot offers several advantages. By offering a disinfection process that does not require labor, it makes the use of human resources more economical for this task. There will be no additional cost for each operation due to disinfection without consumables. The disinfection process is minimized for environment disinfection, ensuring a short disinfection time. High decontamination efficiency is achieved in combating harmful microorganisms present in the environment.

In laboratory tests conducted with C-Bot on the Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 strain at a distance of 1 meter, a disinfection rate of 99.99% was observed after 5 minutes. Thanks to the smart interface included in C-Bot, it calculates the necessary doses for disinfection tasks based on its operating principle. For highly efficient environmental disinfection, C-Bot features an automatic calculation algorithm in its interface to determine the precise dose and time required to eliminate harmful microorganisms. This allows the surface area and disinfection level to be identified and processed accordingly.

C-Bot contains 10 high-grade TUV UVC lamps and disinfects an area of 50 m² with a wavelength of 253.7 nm. These characteristics make it ideal for eliminating harmful microorganisms in the environment, as demonstrated in various research and studies.

To ensure the safe use of C-Bot, a wireless control connection with various functions is integrated into the interface. Disinfection levels, room addresses, task scheduling, and full control of C-Bot can be managed from a safe distance while receiving various notifications and information. It can be controlled remotely via a wireless connection from outside the disinfected room. Monitoring disinfection tasks and recording daily data is a critical part of the infection control process. The C-Bot system enables the user to receive daily reports on the disinfected area and task duration, which can be easily transferred to an external system.

Results

n the past decade, there have been threats to the global community due to the emergence of new infectious diseases and/or the reappearance of old infectious diseases that were thought to have been eradicated. Adding to this the global rise of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms, it is essential for societies to be prepared against these agents. Under these circumstances, it is clear that better information about disease agents, more research, better training, diagnostic facilities, and an improved public health system are needed to protect public health.

Airborne microbial diseases, such as influenza and tuberculosis, represent significant public health issues. The direct approach to preventing airborne transmission is the inactivation of pathogens in the air. The antimicrobial potential of UVC ultraviolet light has long been known. However, its widespread use in public environments is limited because traditional UV light sources are impractical and contain elements that pose a threat to human health. On the contrary, studies have shown that UVC light effectively inactivates bacteria without damaging exposed mammalian skin. This is because UVC light cannot penetrate even the outer (dead) layers of human skin or eyes due to its strong absorption by biological materials. However, since microorganisms like bacteria and viruses are micrometer-sized or smaller, UVC can penetrate and inactivate them. In enclosed public places or areas that require sterilization, very low-dose UVC light is a promising, safe, and inexpensive tool to reduce the spread of airborne microbial diseases.

REFERENCES

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