Porphyrin NanoMetal-Organic Frameworks as Cancer Theranostic Agents

Abstract

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are hybrid multifunctional platforms that have found remarkable applications in cancer treatment and diagnostics. Independently, these materials can be employed in cancer treatment as intelligent drug carriers in chemotherapy, photothermal therapy, and photodynamic therapy; conversely, MOFs can further be used as diagnostic tools in fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography imaging, and photoacoustic imaging. One essential property of these materials is their great ability to fine-tune their composition toward a specific application by way of a judicious choice of the starting building materials (metal nodes and organic ligands). Moreover, many advancements were made concerning the preparation of these materials, including the ability to downsize the crystallites yielding nanoporous porphyrin MOFs (NMOFs) which are of great interest for clinical treatment and diagnostic theranostic tools. The usage of porphyrins as ligands allows a high degree of multifunctionality. Historically these molecules are well known for their reactive oxygen species formation and strong fluorescence characteristics, and both have proved helpful in cancer treatment and diagnostic tools. The anticipation that porphyrins in MOFs could prompt the resulting materials to multifunctional theranostic platforms is a reality nowadays with a series of remarkable and ground-breaking reports available in the literature. This is particularly remarkable in the last five years, when the scientific community witnessed rapid development in porphyrin MOFs theranostic agents through the development of imaging technologies and treatment strategies for cancer. This manuscript reviews the most relevant recent results and achievements in this particular area of interest in MOF chemistry and application.

Metalation of metal–organic frameworks: fundamentals and applications

“…Normally, transition metal (TM) ions/complexes are anchored to the ligands, which react with inorganic metal salts to form a framework. [85][86][87] In 2016, Zhou and co-workers reported PCN-601 (PCN represents the porous coordination network), 88 composed of the [Ni 8 (OH) 4 (H 2 O) 2 Pz 12 ] (denoted as [Ni 8 ]) node and 5,10,15,20-tetra(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)porphyrin (H 4 TPP) ligands, demonstrating excellent stability in alkali solutions. In 2020, they used the same MOF consisting of an Ni-oxo cluster and a light-trapping metallized porphyrin ligand (H 4 TPP(Ni)) (Fig.…”

“…Porphyrin MOFs (PMOFs) are an essential subset of MOFs, which are well known in that different TMs can be accommodated in the center of the porphyrin ring to form metalloporphyrin. 87,237,238 Tetra-topic H 4 TCPP is one of the most popular porphyrin families. 128,156,166,168 In 2020, Shang and co-workers constructed aluminum-based PMOFs (Al-PMOF(M)) (M = Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ ) by inserting different TM ions into the porphyrin ring of TCPP using a PSMet method (Fig.…”

Metalloporphyrin Metal–Organic Frameworks: Eminent Synthetic Strategies and Recent Practical Exploitations

“…Last but not least, their similarity to several molecules operating in the core site of the vital proteins in humans, has led to them being frequently used for plenty of biological utilizations such as biocompatibility, imitating functions in numerous biological systems [ 9 , 23 , 46 ], effectual removal and longer resistance against tumors, as they have less side effects, and they have also been largely employed as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy (PDT) [ 25 , 26 ]. Concomitantly, their fluorescence properties suggest that porphyrin-based photosensitizers are beneficial fluorescence imaging-guided therapy systems for tumor or a multitude of diseases [ 57 , 58 ]. Table 2 summarizes the most significant recent research concerned with the (photo-) catalysis, and electrochemical and biomedical applications of porh@MOFs constructions.…”

Porphyrin‐Based Nanozymes for Biomedical Applications

“…Designing and synthesizing porphyrin‐based nanozymes, in which porphyrins are usually modified with other biological motifs or encapsulated by nanomaterials, can help circumvent this issue. [ 9 ] Porphyrins have good biocompatibility, and several porphyrin derivatives, such as heme [ 10 ] and chlorin e6 (Ce6) [ 11 ] have been approved for clinical applications. Hence, porphyrins have emerged as promising building blocks for constructing nanozymes.…”