Cutibacterium Acnes Biofilm Disruption By Nanoparticle Treatments

C. acnes is short for Cutibacterium acnes and is the most common type of acne that forms on human skin (Cros et al., 2023). . C. acnes biofilms are known to be resistant to antimicrobial agents and produce more extracellular lipases than planktonic cell suspensions, which are cells that are free-flowing (Mias et al., 2023). C. ance biofilms are significant because they increase the risk of more severe levels of acne vulgaris. Additionally, nanoparticles are tiny materials, typically ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers. Nanoparticles have been shown to be a promising agent for disrupting biofilms due to their ability to invade the biofilm matrix and interact with bacterial cells (Torres-Mendieta et al., 2022). Nanoparticles are becoming increasingly common among skin care products. Three common nanoparticles in skin care products include silver, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide. This project cultures C. acne biofilms and prepares three different nanoparticle treatments to disrupt the biofilms. The goal is to determine which nanoparticle treatment disrupts the biofilm the most and kills the most cells. Crystal Violet Assay and Live/Dead Staining methods are used to analyze the disturbance with two ANOVA statistical tests. The results show significant findings with p-values