Silk micrococoons for protein stabilisation and molecular encapsulation

Ulyana Shimanovich, Francesco S. Ruggeri, Erwin De Genst, Jozef Adamcik, Teresa P. Barros, David Porter, Thomas Müller, Raffaele Mezzenga, Christopher M. Dobson, Fritz Vollrath, Chris Holland () and Tuomas P. J. Knowles ()
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Ulyana Shimanovich: University of Cambridge
Francesco S. Ruggeri: University of Cambridge
Erwin De Genst: University of Cambridge
Jozef Adamcik: Department of Health Science and Technology
Teresa P. Barros: University of Cambridge
David Porter: University of Oxford
Thomas Müller: University of Cambridge
Raffaele Mezzenga: Department of Health Science and Technology
Christopher M. Dobson: University of Cambridge
Fritz Vollrath: University of Oxford
Chris Holland: University of Sheffield
Tuomas P. J. Knowles: University of Cambridge

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Naturally spun silks generate fibres with unique properties, including strength, elasticity and biocompatibility. Here we describe a microfluidics-based strategy to spin liquid native silk, obtained directly from the silk gland of Bombyx mori silkworms, into micron-scale capsules with controllable geometry and variable levels of intermolecular β-sheet content in their protein shells. We demonstrate that such micrococoons can store internally the otherwise highly unstable liquid native silk for several months and without apparent effect on its functionality. We further demonstrate that these native silk micrococoons enable the effective encapsulation, storage and release of other aggregation-prone proteins, such as functional antibodies. These results show that native silk micrococoons are capable of preserving the full activity of sensitive cargo proteins that can aggregate and lose function under conditions of bulk storage, and thus represent an attractive class of materials for the storage and release of active biomolecules.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15902

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