Mesoporous selenium nanoparticles for therapeutic goals: a review

Nowadays, one of the main applications of nanoparticles is their usage in therapeutics and drug delivery systems. They can be used for targeted, more efficient, and less cytotoxic drug delivery. In recent years, metal nanoparticles like selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have shown outstanding potential in various applications, especially nano drug delivery systems. Although Se is an essential metal in the body, SeNPs have lower cytotoxicity, more anti-oxidant ability, and higher cell uptake in comparison to Se ions. A nanoporous material with a pore size between 2 and 50 nm is called mesoporous material. Mesoporous nanoparticles also reveal great features like high surface area, low-density nanocarriers, and high volume for drug loading in drug delivery systems. Alzheimer and cancer are two of the mostly studied diseases by mesoporous selenium nanoparticles (MSeNPs). These porous materials were firstly introduced by Zhao in 2017 for doxorubicin delivery to cancerous cells. These particles are biocompatible and have both anti-oxidant and anticancer abilities beside their high drug loading and drug release efficiencies. Many studies have evaluated different aspects of SeNPs, but there are few pieces of research considered MSeNPs. Therefore, in this review, we brought together the recent studies that had been done on these particles and compared them to other nanoparticles from SeNP family.