Medical and Cosmetic Applications of Fungal Nanotechnology: Production, Characterization, and Bioactivity

Abstract

Nowadays, nanotechnology is widely applied for the development of highly efficient products in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Converting bioactive materials to nanoscale not only increases their biocompatibility but also increases their effectiveness, even when lower doses are used. Metal nanoparticles can be synthesized by fungal cells both intra- and extracellularly. Stabilization of the physical and chemical properties of various noble metal nanoparticles produced by fungi can be achieved through controlling the size, surface morphology, and surface chemistry of the nanoparticles. Intracellular synthesis provides smaller nanoparticles with well defined dimensions, but contributes to difficulty in downstream processing activity as compared with synthesis by extracellular methods. Recently, the production of nanoparticles from fungi has received extensive attention, owing to the capacity of fungi to produce nanoparticles extracellularly, a process that is more reliable and ecofriendly than intracellular methods, with relatively simple downstream processing. Fungi secrete extracellular enzymes for their survival and they control metal cation transportation to maintain intracellular homeostasis; when more protein is excreted nanoparticle synthesis is increased. To maximize nanoparticle synthesis, the rate of their synthesis can be increased through optimization of the total fungal cell mass and bioprocessing parameters, such as time of exposure, temperature, and pH. This will facilitate increased productivity in the fungal synthesis of nanoparticles for applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.