Self-assembled silk fibroin nanoparticles loaded with binary drugs in the treatment of breast carcinoma

Hui Li,1,* Jian Tian,1,2,* Anqing Wu,2 Jiamin Wang,1 Cuicui Ge,2 Ziling Sun1–3 1School of Biological and Basic Medical Science, 2School of Radiological & Interdisciplinary Sciences, Soochow University, 3Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Self-assembled nanoparticles of the natural polymer, silk fibroin (SF), are a very promising candidate in drug delivery due to their biocompatible and biodegradable properties. In this study, SF nanoparticles loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and curcumin with size 217±0.4 nm and with a loading efficacy of 45% and 15% for 5-FU and curcumin, respectively, were prepared. The in vitro release effect of 5-FU and curcumin from nanoparticles was evaluated as ~100% and ~5%, respectively. It has been revealed that the application of such a nanodrug can increase the level of reactive oxygen species, which in turn induces apoptosis of cancer cells in vitro. Animal studies have shown that tumors could be noticeably reduced after being injected with the drug-entrapped nanoparticles. More apoptotic cells were found after 7 days of treatment with SF nanoparticles by a hematoxylin–eosin staining assay. These results demonstrate the future potential of nanoparticle-loaded binary drugs in the treatment of breast cancer. Keywords: silk fibroin nanoparticles, 5-flurouracil, curcumin, reactive oxygen specie