Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. Electronic address:
Published: January 2022
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
NK cell-based immunotherapy and pemetrexed (Pem)-based chemotherapy have broad application prospects in cancer treatment. However, the over-expressed NK cell inhibitory receptor on the surface of cancer cells and the low cell internalization efficiency of Pem greatly limit their clinical application. Herein, we construct a series of selenium-containing nanoparticles to synergistically enhance Pem-based chemotherapy and NK cell-based immunotherapy. The nanoparticles could deliver Pem to tumor sites and strengthen the chemotherapy efficiency of Pem by seleninic acid, which is produced by the oxidation of β-seleno ester. Moreover, seleninic acid can block the expression of inhibitory receptors against NK cells, thereby activating the immunocompetence of NK cells. The in vitro and in vivo experiments reveal the potential chemo-enhancing and immune-activating mechanism of seleninic acid, emphasizing the promising prospects of this strategy in effective chemoimmunotherapy.
Since non-thermal atmospheric-pressure ("cold") plasma sources, such as the dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD), have appeared to be remarkably active in wound healing medicine, the elucidation of cold plasma safety and possible secondary undesirable effects becomes of paramount importance. Selenium-containing amino acids, which are commonly incorporated in many enzymes, came in the spotlight for elucidating the plasma impact as easily oxidizable natural targets. The scope of this study was to analyse the impact of non-thermal plasma on selenium-containing amino acids.
Seleninic acids and their precursors are well-known oxygen-transfer agents that can catalyze several oxidations with HO as the final oxidant. Until very recently, the Se(iv) "peroxyseleninic" acid species has been considered the only plausible catalytic oxidant. Conversely, in 2020, the involvement of Se(vi) "peroxyselenonic" acid has been proposed for the selenium mediated epoxidation of alkenes.
The diselenide bond has attracted intense interest in redox-responsive drug delivery systems (DDSs) in tumor chemotherapy, due to its higher sensitivity than the most investigated bond, namely the disulfide bond. Here, a diselenide-bridged doxorubicin dimeric prodrug (D-DOX) was designed by coupling two doxorubicin molecules with a diselenodiacetic acid (DSeDAA) molecule via α-amidation, as a redox-triggered drug self-delivery system (DSDS) for tumor-specific chemotherapy. The drug release profiles indicated that the D-DOX could be cleaved to release the derivatives selenol (DOX-SeH) and seleninic acid (DOX-SeOOH) with the triggering of high GSH and HO, respectively, indicating the double-edged sword effect of the lower electronegativity of the selenide atom.
Background: Therapeutic strategies based on scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppressing inflammatory cascades are effective in improving functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the lack of targeting nanoparticles (NPs) with powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties hampers the clinical translation of these strategies. Here, CD44-targeting hyaluronic acid-selenium (HA-Se) NPs were designed and prepared for scavenging ROS and suppressing inflammatory responses in the injured spinal cord, enhancing functional recovery.
The blockade of immune checkpoints has emerged as a promising strategy for cancer immunotherapy. However, most of the current approaches focus on T cells, leaving natural killer (NK) cell-mediated therapeutic strategies rarely explored. Here, a selenium-containing nanocomplex is developed that acts as a dual immune checkpoint inhibitor to reinvigorate NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy.
