PONE-D-25-15698Synergistic antibacterial effect of hydroxyl radical produced by combined hypochlorous acid and UV.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Kim,

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The submitted manuscript is original and proposes solutions to problems that lack new technologies to solve them. However, the authors do not consider the impact that the application of their proposal based on UVC/HOCl processes could have on the formation of toxic chlorinated species that could be introduced into living beings, causing a greater problem. I think the authors should expand their study by addressing the byproducts that are being produced, especially because they highlight the effect of organic matter in the process and ignore the generation of chlorinated byproducts.

Additionally, the authors should modify the introduction to address more the state of the art of the oxidative radicals of the radiation/chlorine system in the inactivation of pathogens, if the novelty of the study lies in the role of hydroxyl radicals in the inactivation of bacteria.

Reviewer #2: 1.More findings of the work should be added to the abstract.

2.Please check and complete conditions and procedures in experimental section and all procedures should be written clearly in detail.

3.Please clarify the innovations of this work in the introduction section.

4.Include the purity of the used chemicals in the text.

5.Discuss the effect of scavenger to confirm the role of OH free radical and other reactive species.

6.The authors need to provide the standard antibiotics details in the antibacterial activity assay.

7.Deeply check and polish English language level, there are some spelling and grammatical errors.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Synergistic antibacterial effect of hydroxyl radicals generated by the combination of hypochlorous acid and UV irradiation

PONE-D-25-15698R1

Dear Dr. Kim,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Abayeneh Girma

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewer #1:

Reviewer #2:

Reviewer #3:

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Although the proposed disinfection system is interesting, the authors cannot simplify a system like UV/chlorine to the sole action of hydroxyl radicals. This system has already been extensively studied, and the coexistence of Cl radicals and ClO radicals along with hydroxyl radicals is evident. Therefore, I do not recommend its publication.

Reviewer #2: I have reviewed the revised version of the manuscript . The authors have addressed all the reviewer comments satisfactorily, and I am pleased to confirm that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in its current form.

Reviewer #3: All the comments raised by the reviewer have been responded well by the authors in the revised manuscript with Few mistakes.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy .

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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