Development of silk fibroin-derived nanofibrous drug delivery system in supercritical CO2

• Silk fibroin nanofibrous drug delivery system was constructed by supercritical.
• The fiber diameter of nanofibrous structure was controllable.
• The solubility and dissolution rate of curcumin was greatly enhanced.
• Curcumin kept releasing within 96 h.

A silk fibroin (SF)-derived nanofibrous drug delivery system was fabricated by solution-enhanced dispersion via supercritical CO2 (SEDS) (20 MPa pressure, 8 mL/min flow rate, 35 °C temperature) in this study. Curcumin (CM) was used as a water-insoluble drug model. Nanofibrous structure with controllable fiber diameter (<100 nm) was obtained, and inter-molecular hydrogen bonds were formed between CM and SF; the crystallinity of the incorporated CM was remarkably decreased, which led to a significant enhancement in solubility of incorporated CM. In conclusion, SEDS could be developed to fabricate polymeric nanofibrous drug delivery system.

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