Fabrication and Characterization of Reconstituted Silk Microgels for the Storage and Release of Small Molecules

Xizhou Liu; Zenon Toprakcioglu; Alexander J. Dear; Aviad Levin; Francesco Simone Ruggeri; Christopher G. Taylor; Mengsha Hu; Janet R. Kumita; Maria Andreasen; Christopher M. Dobson; Ulyana Shimanovich; Tuomas P.J. Knowles

doi:10.1002/marc.201800898

Fabrication and Characterization of Reconstituted Silk Microgels for the Storage and Release of Small Molecules

Xizhou Liu, Zenon Toprakcioglu, Alexander J. Dear, Aviad Levin, Francesco Simone Ruggeri, Christopher G. Taylor, Mengsha Hu, Janet R. Kumita, Maria Andreasen, Christopher M. Dobson, Ulyana Shimanovich, Tuomas P.J. Knowles

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27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Silk fibroin is a natural protein obtained from the Bombyx mori silkworm. In addition to being the key structural component in silkworm cocoons, it also has the propensity to self-assemble in vitro into hierarchical structures with desirable properties such as high levels of mechanical strength and robustness. Furthermore, it is an appealing biopolymer due to its biocompatability, low immunogenicity, and lack of toxicity, making it a prime candidate for biomedical material applications. Here, it is demonstrated that nanofibrils formed by reconstituted silk fibroin can be engineered into supramolecular microgels using a soft lithography-based microfluidic approach. Building on these results, a potential application for these protein microgels to encapsulate and release small molecules in a controlled manner is illustrated. Taken together, these results suggest that the tailored self-assembly of biocompatible and biodegradable silk nanofibrils can be used to generate functional micromaterials for a range of potential applications in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields.

Original language	English
Article number	1800898
Journal	Macromolecular Rapid Communications
Volume	40
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.201800898
State	Published - Apr 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Funding

X.L. and Z.T. contributed equally to this work. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme 337969). The authors are grateful for financial support from the FEBS Long-Term Fellowship and the Oppenheimer Early Career Fellowship (AL), the Schiff Foundation (AJD), the BBSRC (TPJK), the Newman Foundation (TPJK), the Wellcome Trust (TPJK) and the Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases. X.L. and Z.T. contributed equally to this work. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) through the ERC grant PhysProt (agreement n? 337969). The authors are grateful for financial support from the FEBS Long-Term Fellowship and the Oppenheimer Early Career Fellowship (AL), the Schiff Foundation (AJD), the BBSRC (TPJK), the Newman Foundation (TPJK), the Wellcome Trust (TPJK) and the Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases.

Funders	Funder number
AJD
FP7/2007
Schiff Foundation
TPJK
Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation
Wellcome Trust
Seventh Framework Programme	337969
Federation of European Biochemical Societies
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
European Commission
Seventh Framework Programme

Keywords

biopolymer
encapsulation
microfluidics
protein self-assembly
release kinetics

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10.1002/marc.201800898

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Liu, X., Toprakcioglu, Z., Dear, A. J., Levin, A., Ruggeri, F. S., Taylor, C. G., Hu, M., Kumita, J. R., Andreasen, M., Dobson, C. M., Shimanovich, U., & Knowles, T. P. J. (2019). Fabrication and Characterization of Reconstituted Silk Microgels for the Storage and Release of Small Molecules. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 40(8), Article 1800898. https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.201800898

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doi = "10.1002/marc.201800898",

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Fabrication and Characterization of Reconstituted Silk Microgels for the Storage and Release of Small Molecules

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