Selenium as a pleiotropic agent for medical discovery and drug delivery

Abstract

Baozhang Guan,1,* Ruiling Yan,2,* Ruiman Li,3 Xingwang Zhang4 1Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; 2Fetal Medicine Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; 3Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; 4Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Selenium as a biologically active element lends much support to health maintenance and disease prevention. It is now presenting pleiotropic effects on therapy and drug delivery. In this study, a profiling on the physiological functions, therapeutic significances, clinical/preclinical performances, and biomedical and drug delivery applications of selenium in different modalities was carried out. Major interests focused on selenium-based nanomedicines in confronting various diseases pertaining to selenium or not, especially in antitumor and antidiabetes. Furthermore, the article exclusively discusses selenium nanoparticles featured by ameliorative functions with emphasis on their applications in medical practice and drug delivery. The state-of-the-art in medical discovery as well as research and development on selenium and nano-selenium is discussed in this review. Keywords: selenium, selenium nanoparticles, nanomedicine, biomedical applications, drug delivery, oncotherapy, diabetes

Keywords

• Selenium
• selenium nanoparticles
• nanomedicine
• biomedical applications
• drug delivery
• oncotherapy
• diabetes.