Jastrzebska Katarzyna, Kucharczyk Kamil, Florczak Anna, Dondajewska Ewelina, Mackiewicz Andrzej, Dams-Kozlowska Hanna
Chair of Medical Biotechnology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 61-866 Poznan, Poland ; NanoBioMedical Centre, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 61-614 Poznan, Poland.
Chair of Medical Biotechnology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 61-866 Poznan, Poland.
Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. 2014 Dec 18;20(2):87-98. doi: 10.1016/j.rpor.2014.11.010. eCollection 2015 Mar-Apr.
Silk has been used for centuries in the textile industry and as surgical sutures. In addition to its unique mechanical properties, silk possesses other properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and ability to self-assemble, which make it an interesting material for biomedical applications. Although silk forms only fibers in nature, synthetic techniques can be used to control the processing of silk into different morphologies, such as scaffolds, films, hydrogels, microcapsules, and micro- and nanospheres. Moreover, the biotechnological production of silk proteins broadens the potential applications of silk. Synthetic silk genes have been designed. Genetic engineering enables modification of silk properties or the construction of a hybrid silk. Bioengineered hybrid silks consist of a silk sequence that self-assembles into the desired morphological structure and the sequence of a polypeptide that confers a function to the silk biomaterial. The functional domains can comprise binding sites for receptors, enzymes, drugs, metals or sugars, among others. Here, we review the current status of potential applications of silk biomaterials in the field of oncology with a focus on the generation of implantable, injectable and targeted drug delivery systems and the three-dimensional cancer models based on silk scaffolds for cancer research. However, the systems described could be applied in many biomedical fields.
丝绸在纺织工业中已使用了数百年，并且也被用作手术缝线。除了其独特的机械性能外，丝绸还具有其他特性，如生物相容性、生物可降解性和自组装能力，这些特性使其成为生物医学应用中一种引人关注的材料。尽管丝绸在自然界中仅形成纤维，但合成技术可用于控制丝绸加工成不同的形态，如支架、薄膜、水凝胶、微胶囊以及微球和纳米球。此外，丝绸蛋白的生物技术生产拓宽了丝绸的潜在应用范围。人们已经设计出了合成丝绸基因。基因工程能够改变丝绸的特性或构建杂交丝绸。生物工程杂交丝绸由能自组装成所需形态结构的丝绸序列和赋予丝绸生物材料功能的多肽序列组成。这些功能域可以包括受体、酶、药物、金属或糖类等的结合位点。在此，我们综述了丝绸生物材料在肿瘤学领域潜在应用的现状，重点关注可植入、可注射和靶向给药系统的生成以及基于丝绸支架的三维癌症模型在癌症研究中的应用。然而，所描述的这些系统也可应用于许多生物医学领域。
