Folate conjugated silk fibroin nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery

Disease treatment processes mainly focus on the development of nontoxic, biodegradable, non-immunogenic, biocompatible materials capable of controlled and long-term release of biomolecules. In this work silk protein fibroin from non-mulberry tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta, is used to prepare nanoparticles as a drug delivery system. Folate is a vitamin, which is brought into healthy and cancerous cells by folate receptors. The efficiency of silk fibroin-folate nanoparticles loaded with anticancer drug doxorubicin was evaluated by analysing the cell viability, proliferation and endocytosis. Consequently the effects of pro-inflammatory responses by cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β and nitric oxide were checked by stimulating the macrophages with folate conjugated silk fibroin nanoparticles. The fibroin-folate nanocarriers are nontoxic, easily taken up by cells and capable of sustained drug release. Nanoparticles loaded with anticancer drug doxorubicin target cancer cells. The results show that silk fibroin-folate nanoparticles may serve as promising nanocarriers for different biomedical and nanotechnology applications in cancer research.