Table 6.

Proposed mechanisms of drug stabilization in silk based formulations

	Sources of Instability	Proposed Stabilization Mechanism	References
Small Molecule Drugs	Poor water solubility Inactivity in aqueous media	Hydrophobic interactions Amphiphilicity of silk fibroin	[99, 154]
Biological Drugs	Aggregation/denaturation Thermal instability pH inactivation Enzymatic degradation	Hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions Immobilization/sequestration in silk matrix Reduced molecular mobility Structural stabilization Reduced moisture content	[31, 153, 155, 161]