Due to the increasing demand for eco-friendly, cost-effective and safe technologies, biosynthetic metal nanoparticles have attracted worldwide attention. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were extracellularly biosynthesized using the culture supernatants ofAspergillus sydowii. During synthesis, color change was preliminarily judge of the generation of AgNPs, and the UV absorption peak at 420 nm further confirms the production of AgNPs. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were also used to identify the AgNPs. The results shows that AgNPs has crystalline cubic feature and is a polydisperse spherical particle with size between 1 and 24 nm. Three main synthesis factors (temperature, pH and substrate concentration) were optimized, the best synthesis conditions were as follows 50 °C, 8.0 and 1.5 mM. In the biological application of AgNPs, it shows effective antifungal activity against many clinical pathogenic fungi and antiproliferative activity to HeLa cells and MCF-7 cells in vitro. Our research finds a new path to biosynthesis of AgNPs in an eco-friendly manner, and bring opportunity for biomedical applications in clinic.

The design of bifunctional 3D printed scaffolds GelMA/β-TCP/sodium alginate (Sr²⁺)/MXene provides an effective strategy for the personalized treatment of infected bone defects and broadens the biomedical application of 2D nanomaterial MXenes.

Oral diseases such as tooth caries, periodontal diseases, endodontic infections, etc., are prevalent worldwide. The heavy burden of oral infectious diseases and their consequences on the patients’ quality of life indicates a strong need for developing effective therapies. Advanced understandings of such oral diseases, e.g., inflammatory periodontal lesions, have raised the demand for antibacterial therapeutic strategies, because these diseases are caused by viruses and bacteria. The application of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) on oral infectious diseases has attracted tremendous interest in the past decade. However, aPDT had a minimal effect on the viability of organized biofilms due to the hydrophobic nature of the majority of the photosensitizers (PSs). Therefore, novel nanotechnologies were rapidly developed to target the delivery of hydrophobic PSs into microorganisms for the antimicrobial performance improvement of aPDT. This review focuses on the state-of-the-art of nanomaterials applications in aPDT against oral infectious diseases. The first part of this article focuses on the cutting-edge research on the synthesis, toxicity, and therapeutic effects of various forms of nanomaterials serving as PS carriers for aPDT applications. The second part discusses nanomaterials applications for aPDT in treatments of oral diseases. These novel bioactive nanomaterials have demonstrated great potential to serve as carriers for PSs to substantially enhance the PDT therapeutic effects. Furthermore, the novel aPDT applications not only have exciting therapeutic potential to inhibit bacterial plaque-initiated oral diseases, but also have a wide applicability to other biomedical and tissue engineering applications.