Issue 78, 2014

Multifunctional iron oxide/silk-fibroin (Fe3O4–SF) composite microspheres for the delivery of cancer therapeutics

Abstract

In this article, we report novel multifunctional iron oxide/silk-fibroin (Fe3O4–SF) microspheres synthesized by simple salting out process. These microspheres are used as the carriers of doxorubicin hydrochloride (a traditional anti-cancer drug), denoted as DOX–Fe3O4–SF. The results show that the drug loading capacity (LC) is 3.3% and the drug encapsulation efficiency (EE) could reach up to 76%. The DOX-loaded microspheres exhibit sustained and pH-sensitive release patterns. The total DOX release is measured to be about 60% at pH 5.5. More interestingly, RhB-labelled Fe3O4–SF microspheres exhibit a striking endocytosis, selectively accumulating in the cytoplasm compared to the free RhB. The endocytosis of DOX–Fe3O4–SF microspheres results in only ∼10% survival ratio of HeLa cells after 48 h. Furthermore, because of the remarkable biocompatibility of SF, Fe3O4–SF microspheres show no cytotoxicity toward HeLa cells compared to DOX–Fe3O4–SF. The results clearly indicate that Fe3O4–SF microspheres hold significant potential for drug loading and delivery into cancer cells to induce cell death.

Graphical abstract: Multifunctional iron oxide/silk-fibroin (Fe3O4–SF) composite microspheres for the delivery of cancer therapeutics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jun 2014
Accepted
11 Aug 2014
First published
11 Aug 2014

RSC Adv., 2014,4, 41572-41577

Author version available

Multifunctional iron oxide/silk-fibroin (Fe3O4–SF) composite microspheres for the delivery of cancer therapeutics

H. Zhang, X. Ma, C. Cao, M. Wang and Y. Zhu, RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 41572 DOI: 10.1039/C4RA05919K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements