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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of morbidity and death worldwide. As current cancer drugs are ineffective, new solutions are being sought in other fields, including nanoscience. Similarly, silver nanoparticles play an important role in the pharmaceutical industry as they act as anti-cancer agents with less harmful effects and are usually 1 to 100 nm in size. Selenic acid (SA) and pyruvic acid (PA) are involved in various metabolic pathways in cancer. For this reason, we decided to detect their influence on colorectal cancer using silver-based (Ag) nanocarriers. DLS, Zetasizer, SEM and UV-Vis analyses were used to characterize AgSA and AgPA. A UV spectrophotometer was used to analyze the release of the NPs. MTT analyses were used to measure the viability of HCT116 and HUVEC cells, and IC 50 values were calculated using GraphPad Prism. The indicated dosage and particle size of AgSA NPs proved to be suitable for cytotoxicity. Moreover, injection of these nanoparticles into non-cancer cells proved safe due to their minimal toxicity. In contrast, the AgPA NPs have no cytotoxicity and induce proliferation of HCT116 cells. Finally, only the synthesised AgSA nanoparticles could be used for advanced cancer therapy, which is both inexpensive and has minimal side effects., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Abstract: Sepsis-induced acute liver injury is a life-threatening condition involving inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction. In the present study, the preventive effects of resveratrol (RV) alone and RV-loaded silver nanoparticles (AgNPs + RV) against sepsis-induced damage were investigated and compared in a rat model of polymicrobial sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Rats were divided into four groups: Sham, CLP, RV, and AgNPs + RV. Pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation, presepsin, procalcitonin (PCT), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHDG), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) levels were assessed to determine the treatments' effects. AgNPs + RV treatment significantly reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines, NF-κB activation, presepsin, PCT, 8-OHDG, and VEGF levels compared with the CLP group, indicating attenuation of sepsis-induced liver injury. Both RV and AgNPs + RV treatments increased SIRT1 levels, suggesting a potential role of SIRT1 activation in mediating the protective effects. In conclusion, AgNPs + RV treatment demonstrated extremely enhanced efficacy in alleviating sepsis-induced liver injury by modulating inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction, potentially mediated through SIRT1 activation. In this study, the effect of AgNPs + RV on sepsis was evaluated for the first time, and these findings highlight AgNPs + RV as a promising therapeutic strategy for managing sepsis-induced liver injury, warranting further investigation., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 by the Shock Society.)

Recently, nanocarriers have been made to eliminate the disadvantages of chemotherapeutic agents by nanocarriers. Nanocarriers show their efficacy through their targeted and controlled release. In this study, 5-fluorouracil (5FU) was loaded into ruthenium (Ru)-based nanocarrier (5FU-RuNPs) for the first time to eliminate the disadvantages of 5FU, and its cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on HCT116 colorectal cancer cells were compared with free 5FU. 5FU-RuNPs with a size of approximately 100 nm showed a 2.61-fold higher cytotoxic effect compared to free 5FU. Apoptotic cells were detected by Hoechst/propidium iodide double staining, and the expression levels of BAX/Bcl-2 and p53 proteins, in which apoptosis occurred intrinsically, were revealed. In addition, 5FU-RuNPs was also found to reduce multidrug resistance (MDR) according to BCRP/ABCG2 gene expression levels. When all the results were evaluated, the fact that Ru-based nanocarriers alone did not cause cytotoxicity proved that they were ideal nanocarriers. Moreover, 5FU-RuNPs did not show any significant effect on the cell viability of normal human epithelial cell lines BEAS-2B. Consequently, the 5FU-RuNPs synthesized for the first time may be ideal candidates for cancer treatment because they can minimize the potential drawbacks of free 5FU., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)