Fabricated porous silk fibroin particles for pH-responsive drug delivery and targeting of tumor cells

To improve the roles of tumor drug, porous silk fibroin particles have been designed as drug carriers. Doxorubicin (DOX) is encapsulated during the fabrication process of the silk fibroin particles to form DOX loaded silk fibroin particles (SFPs-DOX). Folic acid (FA) is covalently grafted to the surface of the silk fibroin particles (FA-SFPs-DOX) as a target group to the folate receptor of tumor cells. The experimental results showed that under the conditions of low pH, high ionic strength and high enzyme concentration, the release of loaded drugs in particles has stimulus response under various conditions. The synthesized silk fibroin particles have good biocompatibility. The specific binding of fibroin particles to folate receptors provides the particles to with target functions to the tumor cells. The job develops potential application of silk fibroin particles as smart drug carriers for the targeted therapy of tumor.