Developing Ferritin Protein Nanocage for Drug Delivery Vehicle: An In vitro Study

Abstract

The growing demand against cancer has enabled scientists to develop effective protein-based drug carriers. In recent years, ferritin-based drug carriers have gained increasing attention for their potential biomedical applications as a result of their natural ability to penetrate cells and reverse self-assembly behaviour, resulting in hollow nanocages that are suitable for encapsulating payloads or therapeutic drugs. In addition, ferritin has inherent properties such as biocompatibility, excellent stability (chemical/thermal), water solubility, and ease of synthesis, and its ability to be modified (chemically/genetically), which all contribute to its popularity as a drug delivery device for cancer therapy. The specific function of this drug carrier is to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs directly to the tumor cells, thus avoiding and reducing their toxicity to any normal tissues. This will reduce the unwanted side-effects. We have shown here that ferritin proteins can encapsulate a variety of anticancer drugs through a pH-dependent disassembly/reassembly process. Under lysosomic pH, the encapsulated drugs are released from the ferritin protein nanocage in a slow and controlled manner.