title: Design of Silk-Vaterite Microsphere Systems as Drug Carriers with pH-responsive Release Behavior.
abstract: Improving the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy remains a key goal for cancer therapy. Various passive and active targeting strategies have been developed to facilitate drug release targeted to cancer lesions, but actively designing tunable drug release behavior for these needs remains a challenge. As a step towards this need, silk-vaterite microspheres were fabricated and utilized as carriers to tune drug release. Doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded on the microspheres with high efficiency and the release behavior was regulated by tuning the microspheres via thermal processing.In vitrocell inhibition results showed that the drug-loaded microspheres had different cytotoxic efficiencies depending on the DOX release rates. Better efficacy at lower drug doses suggests options to optimize anticancer effects while minimizing toxic side effects. The tunable drug release capacity combined with the inherent passive targeting property of vaterite-based carriers based on pH sensitivity suggests a promising system for enhanced efficacy of chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China ; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China ; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China ; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China ; College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA02155, USA.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kaplan