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Silk-Based Functional Materials: New Ways of Production, Properties and Applications

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2024) | Viewed by 8943

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Erwann Guénin

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Guest Editor

Integrated Transformations of Renewable Matter Laboratory (EA TIMR 4297 UTC-ESCOM), Université de Technologie de Compiègne, rue du Dr Schweitzer, 60200 Compiègne, France
Interests: green chemistry; catalysis; alternative technologies (microwave, ultrasound, ball milling, continuous flow, reactive extrusion, 3D printing, etc.); preparation of biobased materials; composites; nanomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Alla Nesterenko

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Integrated Transformations of Renewable Matter, ESCOM, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Centre de Recherche Royallieu-CS 60319-60 203 CEDEX, 60200 Compiègne, France
Interests: biobased polymers (proteins, polysaccharides); biomass-derived surfactants; physico-chemical properties of amphiphiles; microencapsulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Silk is a biopolymer composite produced by many members of the arthropod family, such as spiders, silkworms, flies and silverfish. Among the existing silks, mulberry worm silk has been the most commonly used for industrial applications for several centuries, and is composed of two major proteins, fibroin and sericin, having different amino acid composition, structure and properties. Silk fibroin has been approved by the FDA for medical use in the US, and is widely used for several applications in the biomedical domain. There is a great deal of ongoing innovative development making use of fibroin. Unlike fibroin, due to its extraction conditions sericin was long considered a waste product, and promising applications are still under evaluation. Both proteins have various remarkable properties, such as excellent biocompatibility, controllable biodegradability, tunable mechanical properties, antioxidant and/or antibacterial activities, non-toxicity, etc. Moreover, these properties can also be modulated by engineering silk proteins in various types of scaffolds or nanomaterials, alone or by blending them with other polymers or (nano)materials. Thus, they currently represent important biomaterials to produce functional tools with a wide array of potential applications in cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, in the vectorization of active ingredients, and in tissue engineering, adhesives, and environmental applications.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to publish a collection of research articles and reviews on this exiting topic. In this Special Issue, contributions on the production, characterization, and application of fibroin, sericin, their derivatives and composites with other materials or nanomaterials are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Erwann Guénin
Dr. Alla Nesterenko
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

fibroin
sericin

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 4269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Potential of Natural Carotenoids-Containing Sericin of the Domestic Silkworm Bombyx mori

by Sirui Liu, Qing Zhang, Hanyue Zhou, Bo Zhang, Ming Yu, Yonglong Wang, Yanqun Liu and Chunli Chai

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(7), 3688; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25073688 - 26 Mar 2024

Viewed by 412

Abstract

Sericin derived from the white cocoon of Bombyx mori has been attracting more attention for its utilization in food, cosmetics, and biomedicine. The potential health benefits of natural carotenoids for humans have also been well-established. Some rare strains of Bombyx mori (B. mori) produce yellow–red cocoons, which endow a potential of natural carotenoid-containing sericin. We hypothesized that natural carotenoid-containing sericin from yellow–red cocoons would exhibit better properties compared with white cocoon sericin. To investigate the physicochemical attributes of natural carotenoid-containing sericin, we bred two silkworm strains from one common ancestor, namely XS7 and XS8, which exhibited different cocoon colors as a result of the inconsistent distribution of lutein and β-carotene. Compared with white cocoon sericin, the interaction between carotenoids and sericin molecules in carotenoid-containing sericin resulted in a unique fluorescence emission at 530, 564 nm. The incorporation of carotenoids enhanced the antibacterial effect, anti-cancer ability, cytocompatibility, and antioxidant of sericin, suggesting potential wide-ranging applications of natural carotenoid-containing sericin as a biomass material. We also found differences in fluorescence characteristics, antimicrobial effects, anti-cancer ability, and antioxidants between XS7 and XS8 sericin. Our work for the first time suggested a better application potential of natural carotenoid-containing sericin as a biomass material than frequently used white cocoon sericin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Silk-Based Functional Materials: New Ways of Production, Properties and Applications)

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16 pages, 1568 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantitative Shotgun Proteomic Analysis of Bacteria after Overexpression of Recombinant Spider Miniature Spidroin, MaSp1

by Kathryn Randene, J Alexander Hoang Mendoza, Michael Ysit and Craig Vierra

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(6), 3556; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25063556 - 21 Mar 2024

Viewed by 733

Abstract

Spider silk has extraordinary mechanical properties, displaying high tensile strength, elasticity, and toughness. Given the high performance of natural fibers, one of the long-term goals of the silk community is to manufacture large-scale synthetic spider silk. This process requires vast quantities of recombinant proteins for wet-spinning applications. Attempts to synthesize large amounts of native size recombinant spidroins in diverse cell types have been unsuccessful. In these studies, we design and express recombinant miniature black widow MaSp1 spidroins in bacteria that incorporate the N-terminal and C-terminal domain (NTD and CTD), along with varying numbers of codon-optimized internal block repeats. Following spidroin overexpression, we perform quantitative analysis of the bacterial proteome to identify proteins associated with spidroin synthesis. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC MS/MS) reveals a list of molecular targets that are differentially expressed after enforced mini-spidroin production. This list included proteins involved in energy management, proteostasis, translation, cell wall biosynthesis, and oxidative stress. Taken together, the purpose of this study was to identify genes within the genome of Escherichia coli for molecular targeting to overcome bottlenecks that throttle spidroin overexpression in microorganisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Silk-Based Functional Materials: New Ways of Production, Properties and Applications)

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22 pages, 4073 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selective Encapsulation of the Polyphenols on Silk Fibroin Nanoparticles: Optimization Approaches

by Oguz Bayraktar, Gizem Oder, Cansu Erdem, Merve Deniz Kose and Catalina N. Cheaburu-Yilmaz

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(11), 9327; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24119327 - 26 May 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1622

Abstract

The present study proposes a method for designing small bioactive nanoparticles using silk fibroin as a carrier to deliver hydrophobic polyphenols. Quercetin and trans-resveratrol, widely distributed in vegetables and plants, are used here as model compounds with hydrophobic properties. Silk fibroin nanoparticles were prepared by desolvation method and using various concentrations of ethanol solutions. The optimization of the nanoparticle formation was achieved by applying Central Composite Design (CCD) and the response surface methodology (RSM). The effects of silk fibroin and ethanol solution concentrations together with the pH on the selective encapsulation of phenolic compounds from a mixture were reported. The obtained results showed that nanoparticles with an average particle size of 40 to 105 nm can be prepared. The optimized system for the selective encapsulation of the polyphenols on the silk fibroin substrate was determined to be 60% ethanol solution and 1 mg/mL silk fibroin concentration at neutral pH. The selective encapsulation of the polyphenols was achieved, with the best results being obtained in the case of resveratrol and quercetin and encapsulation of gallic and vanillic acids being rather poor. Thin-layer chromatography confirmed the selective encapsulation and the loaded silk fibroin nanoparticles exhibited antioxidant activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Silk-Based Functional Materials: New Ways of Production, Properties and Applications)

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Review

Jump to: Research

27 pages, 3334 KiB

Open AccessReview

Silk Sericin Protein Materials: Characteristics and Applications in Food-Sector Industries

by Su-Jin Seo, Gitishree Das, Han-Seung Shin and Jayanta Kumar Patra

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(5), 4951; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24054951 - 03 Mar 2023

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5588

Abstract

There is growing concern about the use of plastic in packaging for food materials, as this results in increased plastic waste materials in the environment. To counter this, alternative sources of packaging materials that are natural and based on eco-friendly materials and proteins have been widely investigated for their potential application in food packaging and other industries of the food sector. Sericin, a silk protein that is usually discarded in large quantities by the sericulture and textile industries during the degumming process of manufacturing silk from silk cocoons, can be explored for its application in food packaging and in other food sectors as a functional food and component of food items. Hence, its repurposing can result in reduced economic costs and environmental waste. Sericin extracted from silk cocoon possesses several useful amino acids, such as aspartic acid, glycine, and serine. Likewise, sericin is strongly hydrophilic, a property that confers effective biological and biocompatible characteristics, including antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-tyrosinase properties. When used in combination with other biomaterials, sericin has proved to be effective in the manufacture of films or coating or packaging materials. In this review, the characteristics of sericin materials and their potential application in food-sector industries are discussed in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Silk-Based Functional Materials: New Ways of Production, Properties and Applications)

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