Silk fibroin-anastrozole loaded prolonged-release biodegradable nanomedicine: A promising drug delivery system for breast cancer therapy

Abstract

Although several methods are being used for the inhibition, cure, and regimen of breast cancer, many drawbacks are underlying. The idea of this study was to evolve biodegradable, anastrozole-loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles for breast cancer therapy. The nanoparticles were formulated via solvent change method using various concentrations of silk fibroin, and mannitol (stabilizer). Nanoparticles were developed and characterized in respect of particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity, and encapsulation efficiency followed by optimization using 25 fractional factorial design in Design Expert software-12 (Stat-Ease, USA). Thereafter, using variance analysis (ANOVA), the optimized formulation was selected (Sol 2) and subjected to compatibility studies, thermal analysis, surface morphology, x-ray diffraction, transmission electron spectroscopy, drug release profile, and accelerated stability study. The optimized SF-ANS-NP formulation reported a particle size of 181.70 ± 1.3 nm. At 168th h, a sustained release of 94.15% was recorded. The accelerated stability analysis values have proven to be stable for 90 days. The findings showed that anastrozole nanoparticles combined with silk fibroin might be a potentially viable delivery strategy for long-term breast cancer therapy.