Angelica sinensis polysaccharides modified selenium nanoparticles for effective prevention of acute liver injury

Abstract

As a global public health issue, the treatment of acute liver injury (ALI) is severely limited due to the lack of specific drugs. In order to address the challenges, innovative strategies for selenium nanoparticles (Se NPs) with excellent antioxidant properties have been actively developed to effectively prevent ALI. However, the functional activity of Se NPs is severely affected by poor stability and bioavailability. The aim of this work is to develop a stabilization system (ASP-Se NPs) for Angelica sinensis polysaccharides modified Se NPs. The results showed that ASP-Se NPs with smaller size (62.38 ± 2.96 nm) showed good stability, specific accumulation in liver and enhanced cell uptake, thus exerting strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions. The results of in vivo experiments further confirmed that ASP-Se NPs effectively prevented CCl₄-induced ALI by improving liver function, inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory response, and liver pathological damage. This work provides a new alternative method for effectively preventing ALI and improving liver function.

Keywords: Acute liver injury; Angelica sinensis polysaccharides; Selenium nanoparticles.