Manufacture and Drug Delivery Applications of Silk Nanoparticles

Summary

Nanoparticles are emerging as promising drug delivery systems for a broad range of indications. Here, we describe a simple yet powerful method to manufacture silk nanoparticles using reverse engineered Bombyx mori silk. These silk nanoparticles can be readily loaded with a therapeutic payload and subsequently explored for drug delivery applications.

Abstract

Silk is a promising biopolymer for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications due to its outstanding mechanical properties, biocompatibility and biodegradability, as well its ability to protect and subsequently release its payload in response to a trigger. While silk can be formulated into various material formats, silk nanoparticles are emerging as promising drug delivery systems. Therefore, this article covers the procedures for reverse engineering silk cocoons to yield a regenerated silk solution that can be used to generate stable silk nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are subsequently characterized, drug loaded and explored as a potential anticancer drug delivery system. Briefly, silk cocoons are reverse engineered first by degumming the cocoons, followed by silk dissolution and clean up, to yield an aqueous silk solution. Next, the regenerated silk solution is subjected to nanoprecipitation to yield silk nanoparticles – a simple but powerful method that generates uniform nanoparticles. The silk nanoparticles are characterized according to their size, zeta potential, morphology and stability in aqueous media, as well as their ability to entrap a chemotherapeutic payload and kill human breast cancer cells. Overall, the described methodology yields uniform silk nanoparticles that can be readily explored for a myriad of applications, including their use as a potential nanomedicine.

Introduction

Nano-sized drug delivery systems are often used to control drug release and to deliver a diverse set of therapeutic payloads – for example, proteins, peptides and small molecular weight drugs – to target cells and tissues. These therapeutic payloads are often incorporated into various macromolecular drug carriers, such as liposomes, water soluble polymers (including dendrimers), and micro- and nanoparticles¹. Nanoparticles (typically in a size range of 1 nm to 1,000 nm) are being widely explored as potential drug carriers, particularly for anticancer drug delivery². The successful introduction of Abraxane (120 nm sized albumin-based n....

Protocol

1. Preparation of a Reverse-engineered Silk Solution from Bombyx mori Cocoons

NOTE: This methodology is based on protocols described elsewhere ^12,27.

1. Cut 5 g of dried cocoons with scissors into 5 mm x 5 mm pieces. Remove any soiled layers.
2. Weigh out 4.24 g of sodium carbonate and add this carefully to 2 L of boiling distilled water.
   NOTE: This yields a 0.02 M sodium carbonate solution.
3. Add the cut cocoon pieces to the boiling sodium carbonate solution and boil for 60 min to degum the silk fibers. Stir the silk occasionally to ensure homogenous sample processing.
4. Remove the degummed silk and wash....

Results

Data were statistically analyzed as detailed previously¹⁷. The Student's t-test was used for sample pairs and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison post hoc test for multiple samples. An asterisk denotes statistical significance as follows: *P <0.05 and **P <0.001. All data are presented as mean values ± standard deviation (SD) and the numbers in brackets indicate the number of independent experiments.

Discussion

Various methods are available to produce silk nanoparticles, including polyvinyl alcohol blending²⁰, spray drying²¹, salting out²², capillary microdot printing²³, supercritical CO₂ precipitation²⁴ and nanoprecipitation^16,25 (reviewed in reference²⁶). However, nanoprecipitation, due to its overall simplicity, is the most popular technique for generating silk nanoparticles. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply nanoprecipita.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Acetone	VWR International, Radnor, PA, USA	20066.33
Automated Critical Point Dryer	Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar, Germany	EM CPD300
Balancing	Mettler Toledo, Greifensee, Switzerland	NewClassic MS
Black polystyrene microplate, 96 well	Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA	3991
Capillary cell (DTS 1070)	Malvern Instrument, Worcestershire, UK	DTS107
Carbon adhesive disc	Agar Scientific, Essex, UK	G3347N
Centrifuge	Hermle Labortechnik, Wehingen, Germany	Z323K
Centrifuge	Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA	Avanti J-E, Rotor: J20
Centrifuge	Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA	Optima L-70K, Rotor: 50.2 Ti, Adaptor 303392
Coater, low vacuum	Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar, Germany	EM ACE200
Cuvettes, polystyrene, disposable	Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	FB55147
Doxorubixin	LC Laboratories, Boston, MA, USA	D4000
Electronic pipetting, Easypet	Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany	N/A
FE-SEM	Hitachi High-Technologies, Krefeld, Germany	SU6600
Fetal Bovine Serum	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	16000-044
Freeze dryer	Martin Christ, Osterode, Germany	Epsilon 2-4
Heat inactivated Bombyx mori silk cocoons	Tajima Shoji, Kanagawa, Japan	N/A
Hotplate with Stirrer	Bibby Scientific, Stanffordshire, UK	US 152
Incubator	Memmert, Schwabach, Germany	INB 200
Insulin, human recombinant, zinc solution	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	12585-014
Lithium bromide	Acros Organics, Geel, Belgium	AC199870025
MDA-MB-231	ATCC, Manassas, VA, U.S.A	N/A
Micropipette and tips	Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany	N/A
Microplate Reader	Molecular devices, Sunnyvale, CA, USA	SpectraMax M5
Oak Ridge High-Speed Centrifuge Tubes, 50 ml	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	N/A
Open-Top Thickwall Polycarbonate tube, 4 ml	Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA	355645
Penicilin/streptomycin	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	15140-122
RPMI medium	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	11875-093
Serological pipettes, 5 ml	Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA
Silicon wafers	Agar Scientific, Essex, UK	G3391
Slide-A-Lyzer Dialysis cassettes, 3.5K MWCO, 15 ml	Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	87724
Sodium carbonate anhydrous	Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA	S/2840/62
Specimen stubs for SEM	Agar Scientific, Essex, UK	G301
Ultrasonic homogenizer	Bandelin, Berlin, Germany	Sonoplus HD 2070
UV transparent microplate, 96 well	Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA	3635
Vortex	IKA, Staufen, Germany	Genius 3
Zetasizer	Malvern Instrument, Worcestershire, UK	Nano ZS
Zetasizer Software version 7.11		DLS software
Micro Modulyo	Thermo Fisher	230	Freeze drying system