Fibroin Nanoparticles: Use in Drug Delivery

The silkworm Bombyx mori.L. is infected by various diseases viz; grasserie, flacherie, muscardine, and pebrine. Among all these diseases the grasserie causes major economic loss to the industry and is one of the main reasons for low silk productivity. It is caused by a virus known as Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedro virus (BmNPV). The impact of grasserie disease on silkworms is significant as it leads to reduced silk production and can result in economic losses for sericulture farmers. In India greater than 50% of silk cocoon crop loss is due to BmNPV [1] and in Kashmir valley, the loss is about 28-32% [2]. Silk obtained from the cocoons of silkworm Bombyx mori L. is a natural fibrous protein well known for being lightweight, having high mechanical strength, good flexibility, and luster making it ideal for the textile industry. In addition, fibroin extracted from the cocoons of domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori L. has gained growingly interest due to its excellent mechanical properties and high biocompatibility, biodegradability, inexpensiveness, and preparation flexibility [3]. These properties of silk fibroin lead to the formulation of fibroin nanoparticles (FNP’-s) which can be used to encapsulate different types of therapeutic compounds like proteins, vaccines, enzymes, etc. Fibroin has been approved as a biomaterial by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been popularly used in numerous medical applications such as sutures, tissue regeneration, coating devices, and drug delivery systems [4]. It has been studied that SF-derived curcumin nanoparticles show higher efficacy against breast cancer cells and have the potential to treat in vivo breast tumors by local, sustained, and long-term therapeutic delivery as a biodegradable system [5]. Therefore, fibroin-coated nanoparticles can be used effectively for disease management.