Breast cancer has continued to be a cause of increasing morbidity and mortality in women, being the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among them. Its management using chemotherapy is continually plagued with problems of systemic toxicity, lack of compliance by patients, and inadequate targeting of cancer cells. The future of breast cancer chemotherapy will likely involve the use of biocompatible high cell-targeting capacity drug-delivery vehicles like silk fibroin to ameliorate these problems. The utilization of silk fibroin nanoparticles to deliver cytotoxic drugs provides specificity, optimal entrapment, improved therapeutic index, and maximal breast cancer cell toxicity with minimal or no collateral damage to surrounding normal cells. The silk fibroin obtained from the cocoon of the Bombyx morii worm is processed and degummed to remove the sericin component; it is then made into nanoparticles utilizing the desolvation, ionic gelation, or electrospray method. It is then loaded with an appropriate chemotherapeutic drug (e.g., carboplatin), and characterization is performed using physico-chemical methods such as fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, or transmission electron microscopy. The nanoparticles are then tested for cytoxicity, and the induction of apoptosis on breast cancer cell lines MC-7 (Her2-) and MDA-MB-453 (Her2+). Toxicity and apoptosis are assessed using the MTT assay and ELISA methods, respectively. Silk fibroin has been demonstrated in various studies to be a very useful tool in specific active or passive drug delivery to target cancer cells, thus ensuring a maximum destruction and minimum damage to normal surrounding cells, which decreases systemic toxicity and enhances drug efficacy.

Breast cancer ranks as the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. Chemotherapy is commonly used directly or as neo-adjuvant therapy for the management of breast cancer with its attendant adverse effects, underscoring the need to develop biocompatible bioactive compounds for pharmacological applications. The aim of this study is to encapsulate carboplatin (CP) with silk fibroin protein (SF) by using an ionic gelation method as a drug carrier system and assess the apoptotic effect on MCF-7 breast cancer cells during in vitro studies. The characterization of silk fibroin encapsulated carboplatin (SFCP) microparticles was analyzed by FTIR spectrophotometer, SEM, Mastersizer, and biodegradation methods. The encapsulation efficiency and release profile of SFCP microparticles were analyzed by an indirect UV–Vis spectrophotometric method. An apoptotic screening of MCF-7 cells was carried out with 10–200 µg/mL CP loaded SFCP, which were cultured for 24, 48, and 72 h. Data were analyzed using the Student’s t test and analysis of variance. FTIR and drug release studies confirmed an interaction of silk fibroin with the carboplatin moiety. SFCP showed successful encapsulation of the carboplatin moiety. Apoptotic screening showed a dose dependent increase in absorbance, indicating significant cell death (p < 0.05). Thus, the direct apoptotic effect of SFCP microparticles on MCF-7 was confirmed.

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