Infectious diseases, caused by the direct exposure of cellular or acellular pathogens, are found to be closely associated with multiple inflammation and immune responses, keeping one of the top threats to human health. As an indispensable trace element, Selenium (Se) plays important roles in antioxidant defence and redox state regulation along with a variety of specific metabolic pathways. In recent decades, with the development of novel nanotechnology, Selenium nanoparticles (Se NPs) emerged as a promising agent for biomedical uses due to their low toxicity, degradability and high bioavailability. Taking the advantages of the strong ability to trigger apoptosis or autophagy by regulating reactive oxygen species (ROS), Se NPs have been widely used for direct anticancer treatments and pathogen killing/clearance in host cells. With excellent stability and drug encapsulation capacity, Se NPs are now serving as a kind of powerful nano-carriers for anti-cancer, anti-inflammation and anti-infection treatments. Notably, Se NPs are also found to play critical roles in immunity regulations, such as macrophage and T effector cell activation, which thus provides new possibilities to achieve novel nano-immune synergetic strategy for anti-cancer and anti-infection therapies. In this review, we summarized the progress of preparation methods for Se NPs, followed by the advances of their biological functions and mechanisms for biomedical uses, especially in the field of anti-infection treatments. Moreover, we further provide some prospects of Se NPs in anti-infectious diseases, which would be helpful for facilitating their future research progress for anti-infection therapy.

This study aims to characterize and classify serum surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) spectra between bladder cancer patients and normal volunteers by genetic algorithms (GAs) combined with linear discriminate analysis (LDA). Two group serum SERS spectra excited with nanoparticles are collected from healthy volunteers (n = 36) and bladder cancer patients (n = 55). Six diagnostic Raman bands in the regions of 481–486, 682–687, 1018–1034, 1313–1323, 1450–1459 and 1582–1587 cm⁻¹ related to proteins, nucleic acids and lipids are picked out with the GAs and LDA. By the diagnostic models built with the identified six Raman bands, the improved diagnostic sensitivity of 90.9% and specificity of 100% were acquired for classifying bladder cancer patients from normal serum SERS spectra. The results are superior to the sensitivity of 74.6% and specificity of 97.2% obtained with principal component analysis by the same serum SERS spectra dataset. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves further confirmed the efficiency of diagnostic algorithm based on GA-LDA technique. This exploratory work demonstrates that the serum SERS associated with GA-LDA technique has enormous potential to characterize and non-invasively detect bladder cancer through peripheral blood.

Current chemotherapy strategies used in clinic appear with lots of disadvantages due to the low targeting effects of drugs and strong side effects, which significantly restricts the drug potency, causes multiple dysfunctions in the body, and even drives the emergence of diseases. Immunotherapy has been proved to boost the body’s innate and adaptive defenses for more effective disease control and treatment. As a trace element, selenium plays vital roles in human health by regulating the antioxidant defense, enzyme activity, and immune response through various specific pathways. Profiting from novel nanotechnology, selenium nanoparticles have been widely developed to reveal great potential in anticancer, antibacterial, and anti-inflammation treatments. More interestingly, increasing evidence has also shown that functional selenium nanoparticles can be applied for potential immunotherapy, which would achieve more effective treatment efficiency as adjunctive therapy strategies for the current chemotherapy. By directly interacting with innate immune cells, such as macrophages, dendritic cells, and natural killer cells, selenium nanoparticles can regulate innate immunity to intervene disease developments, which were reported to boost the anticancer, anti-infection, and anti-inflammation treatments. Moreover, selenium nanoparticles can also activate and recover different T cells for adaptive immunity regulations to enhance their cytotoxic to combat cancer cells, indicating the potential of selenium nanoparticles for potential immunotherapy strategy development. Here, aiming to enhance our understanding of the potential immunotherapy strategy development based on Se NPs, this review will summarize the immunological regulation effects of selenium nanoparticles and the application of selenium nanoparticle-based immunotherapy strategies. Furthermore, we will discuss the advancing perspective of selenium nanoparticle-based potential immunotherapy as a kind of novel adjunctive therapy to enhance the efficiency of current chemotherapies and also introduce the current obstacles for the development of selenium nanoparticles for potential immunotherapy strategy development. This work is expected to promote the future research on selenium nanoparticle-assisted immunotherapy and finally benefit the more effective disease treatments against the threatening cancer and infectious and chronic diseases.

Cobalt is essential to the metabolism of all animals due to its key role in cobalamin, also known as vitamin B12, the primary biological reservoir of cobalt as an ultra-trace element. Current cancer treatment strategies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, have been seriously restricted by their side effects and low efficiency for a long time, which urges us to develop new technologies for more effective and much safer anticancer therapies. Novel nanotechnologies, based on different kinds of functional nanomaterials, have been proved to act as effective and promising strategies for anticancer treatment. Based on the important biological roles of cobalt, cobalt oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely developed for their attractive biomedical applications, especially their potential for anticancer treatments due to their selective inhibition of cancer cells. Thus, more and more attention has been attracted to the preparation, characterization and anticancer investigation of cobalt oxide nanoparticles in recent years, which is expected to introduce novel anticancer treatment strategies. In this review, we summarize the synthesis methods of cobalt oxide nanoparticles to discuss the advantages and restrictions for their preparation. Moreover, we emphatically discuss the anticancer functions of cobalt oxide nanoparticles as well as their underlying mechanisms to promote the development of cobalt oxide nanoparticles for anticancer treatments, which might finally benefit the current anticancer therapeutics based on functional cobalt oxide nanoparticles.

Colitis is a major form of inflammatory bowel disease which involved mucosal immune dysfunction. Aloperine is an alkaloid isolated from the shrub Sophora alopecuroides L. and has been recognized as an effective treatment for inflammatory and allergic diseases. The present study aimed to examine the molecular mechanisms underlying aloperine-mediated colitis protection. We found that aloperine treatment improved colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) based on body weight, disease activity index, colonic length, and spleen index. Aloperine also effectively attenuated DSS-induced intestinal inflammation based on the pathological score and myeloperoxidase expression and activity in colon tissues. In addition, aloperine regulated T-cell proportions and promoted Foxp3 expression in the spleens and mesenteric lymph nodes of DSS-induced colitis mice and in the spleens of the Foxp3^GFP mice. Aloperine inhibited Jurkat and mouse naïve T-cell apoptosis. Furthermore, aloperine inhibited PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling and upregulated PP2A expression in the DSS-induced colitis mice and in Jurkat cells, but LB-100 (PP2A inhibitor) resulted in an elevated Akt activity in Jurkat cells, activated T-cells, and human splenic mononuclear cells. Aloperine inhibited T-cell and lymphocyte proliferation, but LB-100 reverse these effects. In conclusion, aloperine regulates inflammatory responses in colitis by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling in a PP2A-dependent manner.