Doxorubicin-loaded functionalized selenium nanoparticles for enhanced antitumor efficacy in cervical carcinoma therapy

Development of novel tumor-targeted drug vehicles for cancer therapy is very important and has become one of major topics for designing nanoscale chemotherapeutics delivery systems. In the present study, selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) was decorated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to prepare HA-SeNPs nanoparticles which were used to load doxorubicin (DOX) to fabricate tumor-targeted functionalized selenium nanoparticles [email protected] In vitro and in vivo antitumor activities of [email protected] in human cervical carcinoma treatment were investigated. [email protected] showed selective cellular uptakes between cervical cancer HeLa cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). In vitro release result indicated that DOX was released from HA-SeNPs faster in acidic environment in comparison with normal physiological environment and 76.9% DOX was released in pH 5.4 during initial 30 h. [email protected] showed high activity to inhibit HeLa cell proliferation and triggered HeLa cell apoptosis via activating Bcl-2 signaling pathway. In vivo antitumor study showed that [email protected] inhibited tumor growth through suppressing cancer cells proliferation and inducing cancer cells apoptosis. Interestingly, [email protected] exhibited stronger anticancer activity than free DOX and [email protected] in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, [email protected] did not cause damage to major organs at the used dose. [email protected] is a promising antitumor agent for human cervical carcinoma treatment and this research provides a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer therapy.