Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the degeneration of dopamine (DA) neurons in the midbrain substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). While existing therapeutic strategies can alleviate PD symptoms, they cannot inhibit DA neuron loss. Herein, a tailor-made human serum albumin (HSA)-based selenium nanosystem (HSA/Se nanoparticles, HSA/Se NPs) to treat PD that can overcome the intestinal epithelial barrier (IEB) and blood-brain barrier (BBB) is described. HSA, a transporter for drug delivery, has superior biological characteristics that make it an ideal potential drug delivery substance. Findings reveal that HSA/Se NPs have lower toxicity and higher efficacy than other selenium species and the ability to overcome the IEB and BBB to enrich DA neurons, which then protect MN9D cells from MPP⁺-induced neurotoxicity and ameliorate both behavioral deficits and DA neuronal death in MPTP-model mice. Thus, a therapeutic drug delivery system composed of orally gavaged HSA/Se NPs for the treatment of PD is described.

6-Shogaol is a promising antitumor agent isolated from dietary ginger (Zingiber officinale). However, little is known about the efficacy of 6-shogaol on leukemia cells. Here we investigated the underlying mechanism of 6-shogaol induced apoptosis in human leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo.

Chemotherapy-associated intestinal mucositis is still one of the major challenges in the first-line clinical cancer treatment. Selenium element has shown health benefits on enteritis upon uptake in trace amounts; however, it was limited because of its narrow safety margin. In this work, a new form of Se@Albumin complex nanoparticles (Se@Albumin NPs) was developed by self-assembly of denatured human serum albumin and selenite salts. Se@Albumin NPs significantly improve intestinal mucositis induced with cisplatin (CDDP) in a mouse model via attenuating the level of intestinal oxidative stress, reducing intestinal permeability, and relieving gastric dysmotility. It is very interesting that the restoration of anti-inflammatory bacteria (Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes) and reduced abundance of proinflammatory bacteria (Escherichia) contributed to the reduction of intestinal mucositis by Se@Albumin NPs in mice. In addition, the fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) with materials from Se@Albumin NP-treated mice significantly protected pseudo-aseptic mice from CDDP-induced intestinal mucositis. In conclusion, our findings showed that Se@Albumin NPs can significantly improve CDDP-induced intestinal mucositis, and its function may be directly mediated by gut microbiota regulation, which will provide new helpful information for clinical treatment.