Fabrication and Evaluation of Silk Sericin-Derived Hydrogel for the Release of the Model Drug Berberine

Silk sericin (SS) produced by Bombyx mori is normally discarded as waste in manufacturing processes, which causes environmental pollution. Therefore, investigating the use of silk sericin has economic and environmental benefits. As a three-dimensional structure, the sericin-derived hydrogel was explored in different applications. However, many developed gelation procedures raise concerns regarding safety, cost, and duration of gelation time. In this work, "thiol-ene" click chemistry was used to quickly and controllably prepare an SS-derived hydrogel to resolve these early concerns. Then, berberine was loaded and used as a model for investigating the drug-release profiles of the prepared hydrogel. The experimental results revealed that this hydrogel is eligible for a long-term release of berberine. Throughout the antibacterial experiments, the released berberine maintained its antibacterial activity. Our work expands the application of SS in biomedical industries in an eco-friendly way. Furthermore, the discussed strategy could provide a reference for the subsequent development of SS-derived materials.