Electroactive Silk Fibroin Films for Electrochemically Enhanced Delivery of Drugs

MOUSAVI, SEYED T.; HARPER, GARRY R.; MUNICOY, SOFIA; ASHTON, MARK D.; TOWNSEND, DAVID; ALSHARIF, GHAZI H. K.; OIKONOMOU, VASILEIOS K.; FIRLAK, MELIKE; AU-YONG, SOPHIE; MURDOCK, BETHANY E.; AKIEN, GEOFFREY R.; HALCOVITCH, NATHAN R.; BALDOCK, SARA J.; FAZILATI, MOHAMAD; KOLOSOV, OLEG V.; ROBINSON, BENJAMIN J.; DESIMONE, MARTIN F.; HARDY, JOHN G.

MACROMOLECULAR MATERIALS AND ENGINEERING (PRINT)

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Año: 2020

1438-7492

Biomaterials capable of controlling the delivery of drugs have the potentialto treat a variety of conditions. Herein, the preparation of electrically conduc-tive silk fibroin film-based drug delivery devices is described. Casting aqueoussolutions of Bombyx mori silk fibroin, followed by drying and annealing toimpart β-sheets to the silk fibroin, assure that the materials are stable for fur-ther processing in water; and the silk fibroin films are rendered conductive bygenerating an interpenetrating network of a copolymer of pyrrole and 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzenesulfonic acid in the silk fibroin matrix (characterized by avariety of techniques including circular dichroism, Fourier-transform infraredspectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman spectroscopy, resistancemeasurements, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spec-troscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectronspectroscopy). Fibroblasts adhere on the surface of the biomaterials (viabilityassessed using an (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide)assay and visualized using a confocal microscope), and a fluorescently labeleddrug (Texas-Red Gentamicin) can be loaded electrochemically and released(μg cm−2quantities) in response to the application of an electrical stimulus.