A Polysaccharide-Based Fluorescent Polymer Carrier for Natural Product Delivery and Gastric Cancer Inhibition

In this study, we designed and synthesized a novel polysaccharide-based fluorescent nanocarrier system, HPMC-AuNPs@1, for the delivery of plant extract compound 1. The HPMC-AuNPs@1 system was synthesized by functionalizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and loading Compound 1 into the system. The resulting nanocarrier exhibited a typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect in aqueous media, showing strong green fluorescence in a DMSO-H₂O (5:95) solution. Host-guest sensing experiments revealed that HPMC-AuNPs@1 demonstrated high selectivity for detecting carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) among 14 different metallic ions and antigen molecules. A noticeable fluorescence shift occurred upon binding with CEA, and the detection limit for CEA was as low as 2.56 × 10^-6 M. Additionally, we explored the potential therapeutic applications of HPMC-AuNPs@1 in cancer treatment, particularly in inducing pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death. In vitro experiments with SNU-16 cells showed that HPMC-AuNPs@1 nanoparticles inhibited cancer cell proliferation by inducing pyroptosis. These findings suggest that HPMC-AuNPs@1 holds great promise as a therapeutic platform for cancer treatment, particularly in targeting cell proliferation pathways via pyroptosis induction.