Metal–Organic Frameworks for Drug Delivery: A Design Perspective

Abstract

The use of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in biomedical applications has greatly expanded over the past decade due to the precision tunability, high surface areas, and high loading capacities of MOFs. Specifically, MOFs are being explored for a wide variety of drug delivery applications. Initially, MOFs were used for delivery of small-molecule pharmaceuticals; however, more recent work has focused on macromolecular cargos, such as proteins and nucleic acids. Here, we review the historical application of MOFs for drug delivery, with a specific focus on the available options for designing MOFs for specific drug delivery applications. These options include choices of MOF structure, synthetic method, and drug loading. Further considerations include tuning, modifications, biocompatibility, cellular targeting, and uptake. Altogether, this Review aims to guide MOF design for novel biomedical applications.

Coordination Polymers as a Functional Material for the Selective Molecular Recognition of Nitroaromatics and ipso‐Hydroxylation of Arylboronic Acids

“…[7,17] In this regard, coordination polymers (CPs)/metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a potential candidate and offered hope to the scientific community for fluorescence-based detection not only because of their intriguing structural features but also due to their wide range of potential applications. [18][19][20][21][22] On the other hand, phenols and phenolic derivatives are an important class of compounds having biological and pharmaceutical importance. [23][24][25][26] As phenols and their derivatives are extensively present in natural products as well as in medicinal compounds.…”

Plasmonic metal‐organic frameworks

“…Such a performance is in part due to the slow release of drugs, triggered by the physiological environment (e.g., pH), 110–112 temperature, 113 or light irradiation 114 . Apart from small molecule drugs such as ibuprofen, curcumin, or doxorubicin, MOFs have been used for the encapsulation and delivery of a wide variety therapeutic agents including gasotransmitters, proteins, nucleic acids, viruses, and cells 115 . Plasmonic MOF composites possess enhanced properties, as the plasmonic components can help improve the space and time control of drug release, due to their efficient photothermal properties, 32 even providing high near‐infrared (NIR) absorption for NIR thermal and photoacoustic imaging 116 …”

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as host materials for the enhanced delivery of biomacromolecular therapeutics

“…As such, stimuli-responsive MOFs are the ideal choice for the controlled release of biomacromolecules. 39,40 When stimulus-responsive MOFs are activated by specific intracellular triggers (e.g., acidic pH, reactive biospecies, ATP, etc. ), their host-guest architecture will collapse, thereby releasing the biomacromolecules in a controlled manner.…”