Drug delivery technologies have been quickly innovated in the last few decades, especially in aspect of combination with nanotechnology to advance into multifunctional drug carriers, which can accomplish targeting a tumor, delivering therapeutic molecules, imaging and monitoring drug response. Many models were built and tested; still the challenge is at the choice of the appropriate materials and the facilitation of carrier preparation to achieve both safety and efficacy. Reflecting such needs, silk protein was chosen to provide a biodegradable and biocompatible matrix for carrying drug molecules. Such system with controllable structures and compositions can be an advanced type of drug carriers and further contribute to the improvement of cancer therapy. Silk protein originated from Bombyx mori silkworm was dissolved in various types of aqueous solution, including LiBr [1], CaCl2/Ethanol [2], and formic acid solutions. In this research, the fabrication of silk NPs from the obtained silk protein solution was carefully monitored to achieve various morphologies and structures, through the reprecipitation method. Silk NPs were obtained in narrow size distribution, with the average diameter can be tuned from 10 to 100 nm. The surface charges of as-synthesized silk nanoparticles can be either negative or positive, depending on preparation conditions, brings out the possibility of loading different types of drugs. The obtained silk NPs showed good drug uptakes, adequate stability in aqueous and almost no toxicity at cellular level. The research also provides a NP library with diverse structures and properties, which can be used to manipulate the drug delivery performance. The results are discussed in terms of UV-Vis, DLS, XRD, TEM, XPS, and CLSM.

Facile fabrication and surface modification of silk protein for a versatile drug carrier

ACS Fall 2021

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