Lentinan-functionalized selenium nanoparticles induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in human colon carcinoma HCT-116 cells

Xiong Gao; Yanting Yao; Xujie Chen; Xiaorong Lin; Xiaobing Yang; Chi-Tang Ho; Bin Li; Zhongzheng Chen

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.987807

Lentinan-functionalized selenium nanoparticles induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in human colon carcinoma HCT-116 cells

Front Nutr. 2022 Aug 23:9:987807. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.987807. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiong Gao^{1

2

3}, Yanting Yao², Xujie Chen², Xiaorong Lin², Xiaobing Yang¹, Chi-Tang Ho⁴, Bin Li^{2

5}, Zhongzheng Chen^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Safety and Health, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiomics and Precision Application, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Guangdong Yuewei Edible Fungi Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States.
⁵ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have gained extensive attention for their excellent biological activity and low toxicity. However, SeNPs are extremely liable to aggregate into non-bioactive or gray elemental selenium, which limits their application in the biomedicine field. This study aimed to prepare stable SeNPs by using lentinan (LNT) as a template and evaluate its anti-colon cancer activity. The average particle diameter of obtained lentinan-selenium nanoparticles (LNT-SeNPs) was approximately 59 nm and presented zero-valent, amorphous, and spherical structures. The monodisperse SeNPs were stabilized by LNT through hydrogen bonding interactions. LNT-SeNPs solution remained highly stable at 4°C for at least 8 weeks. The stability of LNT-SeNPs solution sharply decreased under high temperature and strong acidic conditions. LNT-SeNPs showed no obvious cytotoxic effect on normal cells (IEC-6) but significantly inhibited the proliferation of five colon cancer cells (HCT-116, HT-29, Caco-2, SW620, and CT26). Among them, LNT-SeNPs exhibited the highest sensitivity toward HCT-116 cells with an IC₅₀ value of 7.65 μM. Also, LNT-SeNPs displayed better cancer cell selectivity than sodium selenite and selenomethionine. Moreover, LNT-SeNPs promoted apoptosis of HCT-116 cells through activating mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway. Meanwhile, LNT-SeNPs induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase in HCT-116 cells via modulation of cell cycle regulatory proteins. The results of this study indicated that LNT-SeNPs possessed strong potential application in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Keywords: HCT-116; apoptosis; cell cycle arrest; characterization; lentinan; selenium nanoparticles; stability.