Drug release from core-shell PVA/silk fibroin nanoparticles fabricated by one-step electrospraying

Yang Cao,Zhigang Wang,Pan Li,Yuan Guo,Fengqiu Liu,Tao Yu,Yuli Chen,Haitao Ran,Deshuai Lou

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12351-1

Abstract

Silk fibroin (SF), a FDA-approved natural protein, is renowned for its great biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties. SF-based nanoparticles provide new options for drug delivery with their tunable drug loading and release properties. To take advantage of the features of carrier polymers, we present a one-step electrospraying method that combines SF, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and therapeutic drugs without an emulsion process. A distinct core-shell structure was obtained with the PVA core and silk shell after the system was properly set up. The model drug, doxorubicin, was encapsulated in the core with a greater than 90% drug encapsulation efficiency. Controllable drug release profiles were achieved by alternating the PVA/SF ratio. Although the initial burst release of the drug was minimized by the SF coating, a large number of drug molecules remained entrapped by the carrier polymers. To promote and trigger drug release on demand, low intensity focused ultrasound (US) was applied. The US was especially advantageous for accelerating the drug diffusion and release. The apoptotic activity of MDA-MB-231 cells incubated with drug-loaded nanoparticles was found to increase with time. In addition, we also observed PVA/SF nanoparticles that could elicit a drug release in response to pH.

Highlights

In recent years, many attempts have been made to design and fabricate different kinds of nanoscale drug delivery systems to load therapeutic agents and release them in a controlled manner[1,2,3]
The results showed that 70% of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was released from the DOX-PVA1/Silk fibroin (SF) nanoparticles in the first 6 hour and nearly 90% was released at the end of 72 h
To take advantages of the properties of these polymers, we fabricated drug-loaded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/SF nanoparticles with distinct core-shell structures using a coaxial electrospray technology

Summary

Introduction

Many attempts have been made to design and fabricate different kinds of nanoscale drug delivery systems to load therapeutic agents and release them in a controlled manner[1,2,3]. The release kinetics of DOX were measured at different pH values (pH 5.0, pH 6.5, and pH 7.4) to evaluate the potential of PVA/SF nanoparticles as pH-responsive, drug-delivery systems. Three groups of DOX encapsulated PVA/SF nanoparticles with varying inner PVA concentrations (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) were prepared to study their drug release profiles over 72 h (Fig. 3).

Results

Conclusion