Insight into the Effect of Stabilizers on Anticancer and Antibacterial Activity of AgBiS2 Nanomaterial.

The near-infrared (NIR) light-absorbing AgBiS2 nanoparticles can be excited by single-wavelength light, which is the primary characteristic of a photoresponsive platform. Chemical synthesis of nanomaterials inevitably requires long-chain organic surfactants or polymers to stabilize them in the nano regime. These stabilizing molecules barricade the interaction of nanomaterials with biological cells. We have produced stabilizer-free (sf-AgBiS2) and polymer-coated (PEG-AgBiS2) nanoparticles; and assessed their anticancer and antibacterial activity to evaluate the effect of stabilizers. sf-AgBiS2 showed better antibacterial activity against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and displayed excellent cytotoxicity against HeLa cells compared to PEG-AgBiS2. The photothermal therapy (PTT) results illustrated the tumor ablation ability of sf-AgBiS2, which converted light into heat effectively up to 53.3°C under NIR irradiation. This work demonstrates the importance of synthesizing stabilizer-free nanoparticles to produce safe and highly active PTT agents.