Potentiation of in Vivo Anticancer Efficacy of Selenium Nanoparticles by Mushroom Polysaccharides Surface Decoration.

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) are recently emerging as promising anticancer agents because of their high bioavailability, low toxicity and remarkable anticancer activities. However, the effects of surface physicochemical properties on the biological actions remain elusive. Herein we decorated SeNPs with various water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from various mushrooms, to compare physical characteristics and anticancer profile of these SeNPs.

Polysaccharide-protein complex-decorated selenium nanosystem as an efficient bone-formation therapeutic.

Polysaccharide-protein complex-coated selenium nanoparticles (PTR-SeNPs) system has been rationally designed and identified as a potent bone-formation therapeutic to antagonize osteoporosis. The nanosystem presents high cellular uptake in osteoblast cells and significantly enhances bone formation in vitro and in vivo, mainly through BMP-2/Smad-mediated signalling pathways.

Autophagy is an important action mode for functionalized selenium nanoparticles to exhibit anti-colorectal cancer activity.

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have attracted much interest as potential anticancer nanodrugs. Our previous studies also demonstrated that SeNPs could be developed as carriers of clinically used anticancer drugs to achieve synergistic efficacy. Here, we describe the synthesis of Pleurotus tuber-regium (PTR)-conjugated SeNPs (PTR-SeNPs) and their application in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), which is one of the principal causes of cancer morbidity and mortality in the world.

Maternal dietary exposure to selenium nanoparticle led to malformation in offspring.

Selenium (Se) is an essential element and its biological activity is related to its speciation. It is also well-known that in excess it can cause teratogenesis in fish and birds. In this study we compared dietary toxicity of elemental selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) with selenite and selenomethionine (Se-Met).