Loading and release of doxorubicin hydrochloride from iron(iii) trimesate MOF and zinc oxide nanoparticle composites

Chitosan-grafted folic acid decorated one-dimensional GONS: A biocompatible drug cargo for targeted co-delivery of anticancer agents

In conventional chemotherapy, the cancer cells can become highly resilient due to a phenomenon known as multi-drug resistance (MDR). The co-delivery of chemotherapeutic agents assisted with novel nanocarrier-based targeted DDS may counter the MDR issues and subsequently improve their therapeutic efficacy. In line with this, the present work deals with the development of 1D graphene oxide nanoscrolls (GONS)-based nano delivery system for co-delivery of chemosensitizer along with the chemotherapeutic agent. Herein, the 1D GONS nanocarrier was initially functionalized with chitosan (CS) biopolymer and folic acid (FA) further to enhance their biocompatibility and target-specific co-delivery. The resultant GONS-CS-FA (GCF) nanocarriers were co-loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and caffeic acid (CA) at different weight proportions with respect to nanocarrier and drug composition. The optimum loading efficiency of 51.14 ± 1.47 % (DOX) and 49.70 ± 1.19 % (CA) was observed for GCF: drug ratio of 2.5 with drug composition of 1:1. In vitro release at pH 5 yielded ~83 % DOX and 75 % CA, compared to ~71 % DOX and 61 % CA at pH 7.4 over 7 days, suggesting a higher and targeted drug release in the cancer microenvironment. Cytotoxicity tests revealed selective apoptosis in cancer cells (A549) while maintaining cytocompatibility with normal cells (HEK293).

Biocompatible Drug Delivery System Based on a MOF Platform for a Sustained and Controlled Release of the Poorly Soluble Drug Norfloxacin

Norfloxacin (NFX), an important antibacterial fluoroquinolone, is a class IV drug according to the biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) and has low solubility and permeability issues. Such poor physicochemical properties of drug molecules lead to poor delivery and are of serious concern to the pharmaceutical industry for clinical development. We present here a conceptually new approach to deliver NFX, by loading the drug molecule on the porous platform of a biocompatible metal-organic framework (MOF), MIL-100(Fe). The loading of the drug on the MOF leading to NFX@MIL-100(Fe) was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), and nitrogen adsorption studies. Controlled experiments resulted in the high loading of the drug molecule (∼20 wt %) along with the desired sustained release. We could further control the release of norfloxacin by coating drug-loaded MIL-100(Fe) with PEG, PEG{NFX@MIL-100(Fe)}. Both drug delivery systems (DDSs), NFX@MIL-100(Fe) and PEG{NFX@MIL-100(Fe)}, were tested for their biocompatibility through toxicity studies. The DDSs are biocompatible and show insignificant cytotoxicity, as revealed by cell viability studies through the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.

Applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks as Drug Delivery Systems

In the last decade, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great prospective as new drug delivery systems (DDSs) due to their unique properties: these materials exhibit fascinating architectures, surfaces, composition, and a rich chemistry of these compounds. The DSSs allow the release of the active pharmaceutical ingredient to accomplish a desired therapeutic response. Over the past few decades, there has been exponential growth of many new classes of coordination polymers, and MOFs have gained popularity over other identified systems due to their higher biocompatibility and versatile loading capabilities. This review presents and assesses the most recent research, findings, and challenges associated with the use of MOFs as DDSs. Among the most commonly used MOFs for investigated-purpose MOFs, coordination polymers and metal complexes based on synthetic and natural polymers, are well known. Specific attention is given to the stimuli- and multistimuli-responsive MOFs-based DDSs. Of great interest in the COVID-19 pandemic is the use of MOFs for combination therapy and multimodal systems.