Formulation of biologically-inspired silk-based drug carriers for pulmonary drug delivery targeted for lung cancer

Abstract

A novel controlled release delivery system has been formulated using natural silk proteins extracted from cocoons of silkworms. The benefits of using silk fibroin, the major protein in silk, has been widely established in many applications, however this is the first time to report silk fibroin as being formulated and tested for pulmonary drug delivery. Silk fibroin particles were formulated and engineered for efficient delivery to the airways via dry powder inhalers and demonstrated high aerosolisation performance through the measurement of in vitro lung deposition. Various drugs were incorporated into the silk particles, and ultimately silk particles were loaded with cisplatin to develop controlled-release drug delivery systems that target lung cancer. Human lung epithelial cell line was used to test cytocompatibility of silk particles and the cytotoxicity of silk-cisplatin particles with normal or cross-linked silk formulations. Positive results were obtained and contributed for the optimisation of silk-based controlled-release delivery systems for pulmonary drug delivery.