Synthesis and evaluation of a novel water-soluble high Se-enriched Astragalus polysaccharide nanoparticles

Selenium is an essential trace element in human body. Se-deficiency is common phenomenon in all over the world, which severely harms the health of organism and causes the etiology of many chronic, degenerative diseases, such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, cancers, hypoimmunity, hypothyroidism and viral diseases. So, the research on preparation of Se-supplementing with the effective, safe and high Se content was imperative. In this study, Se-enriched Astragalus polysaccharide nanoparticles (Se-APS) were prepared by the previous optimization experimental conditions, as follows: reaction temperature 80.5 °C, pH 7.8, ratio of catalyst to APS 0.57:1.0 g·g−1, and reaction time 62 min. The Se content of Se-APS was as high as 13.42 ± 0.37%, characterized by energy spectrometer, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared, particle size, zeta potential and atomic force. Se release of the Se-APS in vitro followed the Higuchi's kinetics model and exhibited the basically same release pattern in artificial gastric juice (pH 2.0), artificial intestinal juice (pH 8.0) and PBS (pH 7.4). The proliferation of T-lymphocytes with Se-APS incubation increased at an average of 13.87%, comparing with APS. It could not only enhance the proliferation of T-lymphocytes, but also effectively suppress malignant proliferation of HepG2 cells and reduce cell migration and invasion. We prepared a novel water-soluble Se-APS by using a chelating method, which was promising as a novel Se supplements with high Se content and good bioactivity.