Latest advances in electrospun plant-derived protein scaffolds for biomedical applications

Abstract

Plant-derived proteins continue drawing attention because of their high availability in nature, tailorable properties, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and biological activities. Corn, soy, and wheat proteins are the most explored ones. Because of the advantages of plant-derived proteins, significant efforts are being devoted to exploring their use in a variety of biomedical applications. In addition, electrospinning technology offers a versatile platform for designing drug-loaded biopolymer nanofibrous mats of increasingly interest in these fields. We make no attempt here to provide a comprehensive description of each electrospun protein-based system. Instead, we highlight the recent progress, and directions in which further work seems promising, providing examples mainly focused on soy, zein, and gliadin proteins to illustrate the advances in the biomedical field.