Silk has a robust clinical track record and is emerging as a promising biopolymer for drug delivery, including its use as nanomedicine. However, silk-based nanomedicines still require further refinements for full exploitation of their potential; the application of "stealth" design principals is especially necessary to support their evolution. The aim of this study was to develop and examine the...

Silk possesses many beneficial wound healing properties, and electrospun scaffolds are especially applicable for skin applications, due to their smaller interstices and higher surface areas. However, purified silk promotes microbial growth. Selenium nanoparticles have shown excellent antibacterial properties and are a novel antimicrobial chemistry. Here, electrospun silk scaffolds were doped wi...

Natural silk protein nanoparticles are a promising biomaterial for drug delivery due to their pleiotropic properties, including biocompatibility, high bioavailability, and biodegradability. Chinese oak tasar Antheraea pernyi silk fibroin (ApF) nanoparticles are easily obtained using cations as reagents under mild conditions. The mild conditions are potentially advantageous for the encapsulation...

Curcumin, extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa, has been widely used in medicine for centuries due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-microbial effects. However, its bioavailability during treatments is poor because of its low solubility in water, slow dissolution rate and rapid intestinal metabolism. For these reasons, improving the therapeutic efficiency of cu...

Silk-elastin-like protein polymers (SELPs) combine the mechanical and biological properties of silk and elastin. These properties have led to the development of various SELP-based materials for drug delivery. However, SELPs have rarely been developed into nanoparticles, partially due to the complicated fabrication procedures, nor assessed for potential as an anticancer drug delivery system. We ...

A silver nanoparticle solution was prepared in one step by mixing AgNO3 and a multi-amino compound (RSD-NH2) solution under ambient condition. RSD-NH2 was in-house synthesized by methacrylate and polyethylene polyamine in methanol, which has abundant amino and imino groups. However, the characterization of silver nanoparticles indicated that these nanoparticles are easy to agglomerate in soluti...

Objective(s): The objective of the current study was to prevent surgical site infection (SSI) by creating a new antibacterial silk suture. Methods: Cefixime trihydrate (CFX) was prepared as nanoparticles via mixing with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel by covalent cross-linkage. The mixture was stirred vigorously to obtain a homogenous gel. Under this conditio...

The silk yarn containing Ag nanoparticles was prepared through the chemical reduction under ultrasound irradiation. In this system, ethylene glycol served as a reduction reagent and protecting silver nanoparticles from aggregation. The effect of some parameter, such as power of ultrasound irradiation and temperature in growth of the nanometric Ag were studied. Particle sizes and morphology of n...

Bombyx mori silk fibers are an important biomaterial and are used in surgical sutures due to their remarkable biocompatibility. The major drawback to the application of biomaterials is the risk of bacterial invasion, leading to clinical complications. We have developed an easy and cost-effective method for fabrication of antibacterial silk fibers loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by an i...

Bioengineered spider silk is a biomaterial that combines superb mechanical properties, biocompatibility and biodegradability with a good accessibility and simple purification procedure. Thus, spider silk has extensively been explored as material for numerous biomedical applications. Silk protein can self-assemble in the high phosphate ion concentration and under mixing conditions into spheres o...