Pathway of cytotoxicity induced by folic acid modified selenium nanoparticles in MCF-7 cells

Abstract

Selenium nanoparticles (Se NPs) have been recognized as promising materials for biomedical applications. To prepare Se NPs which contained cancer targeting methods and to clarify the cellular localization and cytotoxicity mechanisms of these Se NPs against cancer cells, folic acid protected/modified selenium nanoparticles (FA-Se NPs) were first prepared by a one-step method. Some morphologic and spectroscopic methods were obtained to prove the successfully formation of FA-Se NPs while free folate competitive inhibition assay, microscope, and several biological methods were used to determine the in vitro uptake, subcellular localization, and cytotoxicity mechanism of FA-Se NPs in MCF-7 cells. The results indicated that the 70-nm FA-Se NPs were internalized by MCF-7 cells through folate receptor-mediated endocytosis and targeted to mitochondria located regions through endocytic vesicles transporting. Then, the FA-Se NPs entered into mitochondria; triggered the mitochondria-dependent apoptosis of MCF-7 cells which involved oxidative stress, Ca(2)+ stress changes, and mitochondrial dysfunction; and finally caused the damage of mitochondria. FA-Se NPs released from broken mitochondria were transported into nucleus and further into nucleolus which then induced MCF-7 cell cycle arrest. In addition, FA-Se NPs could induce cytoskeleton disorganization and induce MCF-7 cell membrane morphology alterations. These results collectively suggested that FA-Se NPs could be served as potential therapeutic agents and organelle-targeted drug carriers in cancer therapy.

Gold Nanoparticles Inhibit VEGF165-Induced Migration and Tube Formation of Endothelial Cells via the Akt Pathway

“…Atomic force microscopy is a useful tool for the collection of cellular surface information because it can detect the cellular topography, ultrastructure, and morphological changes [17, 18]. In this study, AFM was used to observe a variety of changes in the HUVEC surface morphology and ultrastructure in the different treatment groups.…”

“…AFM is a powerful method that we can with which image cell surface ultrastructures under physiological conditions [29]. As a nondestructive surface imaging tool, AFM can obtain nanometric-scale images of the cell surface and can provide very important morphological and cell membrane details [18, 30]. Changes in cell morphology and pseudopod formation indicate the level of cell activity, and the cell surface particles indicate metabolic activity and functional protein secretion [31].…”

Synthesis, characterization, and controlled release of selenium nanoparticles stabilized by chitosan of different molecular weights

“…Many efforts have been made to stabilize the red selenium particles including the use of proteins (Kaur, Iqbal, & Bakshi, 2009;Shirazi et al, 2014;Xia, 2007), polyphenols (Barnaby, Sarker, Dowdell, & Bannerjee, 2011;Pi et al, 2013;Wu et al, 2013), polysaccharides (Kong et al, 2014;Soumya, Vineetha, Reshma, & Raghu, 2013;Zheng et al, 2013), melatonin , ATP , and monosaccharides (Zheng et al, 2011). These all have been used as dispersants to prepare stable and uniform selenium nanoparticles.…”

Preparation and antioxidant properties of selenium nanoparticles-loaded chitosan microspheres

“…Over the past decade, much effort had been devoted to synthesize and stabilize SeNPs with the use of polysaccharides, 15,[18][19][20] monosaccharides, 21 proteins, 3,[22][23][24] amino acids, 25 polyphenols, [26][27][28] melatonin, 29 ATP, 30 complex plant extract 10,31 and even microorganism culture. 8 Among them, polysaccharide is regarded as an appropriate template for fabricating SeNPs when considering energy efficiency and eco-friendliness, according to Zhang et al 15 However, the SeNPs prepared using polysaccharides were found to be unstable, due to enlargement of size and decrease of zeta potential during storage in aqueous environment.…”