Calcium phosphate glasses (CPGs) are acquiring great
importance
in the biomedical field because of their thermomechanical and bioresorbable
properties. In this study, optically transparent copper (1 mol %)-doped
calcium phosphate glasses (CPGs_Cu) were prepared through the melt-quenching
method, and their biocompatibility and antibacterial and antiviral
properties were evaluated and compared with undoped CPGs. Biocompatibility
was evaluated on murine fibroblast NIH-3T3 cells as a preliminary
study of cytocompatibility. The in vitro tests were
performed through indirect and direct cytotoxicity analyses by MTT
and Alamar Blue assays and supported by electron microscopy observations.
Microbiological analyses were performed against the most common Gram-negative
and Gram-positive pathogens that cause nosocomial infections: Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain. In addition, the bioglass
samples were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 to assess their effects on viral
survival. The obtained results assessed the biocompatibility of both
bioglass types and their ability to reduce the viral load and trap
the virus. In addition, Cu2+-doped bioglass was found to
be antibacterial despite its low content (1 mol %) of copper, making
this a promising candidate material for biomedical applications, e.g.,
surgery probes, drug delivery, and photodynamic therapy.