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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