Low-power blue LED and red laser effects on plasmid DNA, survival, and photolyase mRNA levels in Escherichia coli cultures

Abstract Low-power lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are used for photobiomodulation therapy, but the photobiological effects on DNA repair mechanisms in bacteria cells are disputed yet. This work aimed to evaluate the induction of DNA damages in plasmids, bacterial survival and proliferation, and photolyase mRNA levels in E. coli cultures exposed to low-power blue LED and red laser, followed by ultraviolet c (UVC) radiation. Aliquots of pUC19 plasmids and E. coli C600 cultures were exposed to low-power blue LED (470 nm) and red laser (658 nm) at different fluences. Other E. coli C600 cultures were exposed to UVC radiation after exposure to low-power blue LED and red laser. After irradiations, plasmids were submitted to agarose gel electrophoresis to evaluate DNA damage, bacterial cultures were spread onto Petri dishes content rich medium and incubated to evaluate bacterial survival and proliferation, and photolyase mRNA levels in bacterial cells were evaluated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results suggest that exposure to blue and red lights emitted from low-power LEDs and lasers does not cause DNA strand breaks in bacterial plasmids and does not alter the survival and mRNA levels from photolyase gene in E. coli cells, but increases bacterial survival and proliferation in E. coli cultures exposed to UVC radiation depending on LED and laser fluences.