Silks are a class of proteinaceous materials produced by arthropods for various purposes. Spider dragline silk is known for its outstanding mechanical properties, and it shows high biocompatibility, good biodegradability, and a lack of immunogenicity and allergenicity. The silk produced by the mulberry silkworm B. mori has been used as a textile fiber and in medical devices for a long time. Here, recent progress in the processing of different silk materials into highly tailored isotropic and anisotropic coatings for biomedical applications such as tissue engineering, cell adhesion, and implant coatings as well as for optics and biosensors is reviewed.

Drug delivery systems allow tissue/cell specific targeting of drugs in order to reduce total drug amounts administered to an organism and potential side effects upon systemic drug delivery. Most drug delivery systems are polymer-based, but the number of possible materials is limited since many commercially available polymers induce allergic or inflammatory responses or lack either biodegradability or the necessary stability in vivo. Spider silk proteins represent a new class of (bio)polymers that can be used as drug depots or drug delivery systems. The recombinant spider silk protein eADF4(C16), which can be processed into different morphologies such as particles, films, or hydrogels, has been shown to fulfil most criteria necessary for its use as biomaterial. Further, eADF4(C16) particles have been shown to be well-suited for drug delivery. Here, a new method was established for particle production to reduce particle size and size distribution. Importantly, cellular uptake of these particles was shown to be poor in HeLa cells. Therefore, variants of eADF4(C16) with inversed net charge or incorporated cell penetrating peptides and receptor interacting motifs were tested, showing much better cellular uptake. Interestingly, uptake of all silk variant particles was mainly achieved by clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) or regions (IDR) can adopt multiple conformational states, depending on the interaction partners they encounter. This enables proteins or individual domains to fulfill multiple functions. Here, we analyzed the flank sequences of preCol-NG, one of three collagenous proteins of a mussel byssus thread governing its mechanical performance. preCol-NG comprises a collagen domain and nonrepetitive termini enclosing specific flank regions characterized by tandem repeats known from silk proteins, protein elastomers, and plant cell wall-associated proteins. We recombinantly produced a protein mimicking the M. galloprovincialis preCol-NG C-terminal flank region. The protein was intrinsically unfolded in solution, even at elevated temperatures. However, upon contact with small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) reversible β-structure formation occurred, reminiscent of partitioning-folding coupling. This behavior of preCol-NG flank domains likely impacts byssogenesis and sheds new light on a distinct mechanism of how fibrous protein materials might be achieved by lipid-induced self-assembly in nature.