Artemisinin-loaded silk fibroin/gelatin composite hydrogel for wound healing and tumor therapy

As a natural extract with multiple pharmacological activities, the application of artemisinin (ART) is limited by poor solubility, short half-life and first-pass effect. In this study, ART was loaded into a drug delivery system based on silk fibroin and gelatin to develop a composite hydrogel for wound healing and cancer therapy. With crosslinked by genipin, the fabricated SF-G-ART hydrogel had good flexibility and ductility, its tensile strength was 1.42 MPa and the maximum elongation could reach 124.99%. Within 120 h, SF-G-ART hydrogel cumulatively released 81.74% of ART. The release effect of this hydrogel could be controlled by pH. The fabricated SF-G-ART hydrogel exhibited anti-inflammatory effect and anti-cancer cell property. The further animal experiment showed that it could shorten the inflammatory process and accelerated the repair of wound tissue. Moreover, with the release of ART, SF-G-ART hydrogel could significantly inhibit the tumor growth in vivo. These findings demonstrate that the fabricated SF-G-ART hydrogel in this study has a good potential for application in wound healing and cancer therapy.