Novel formulations of metal-organic frameworks for controlled drug delivery

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are one of the typical coordination polymers which constructed by metal ions/clusters and multitopic organic ligands. Compared with traditional porous materials, MOFs have the advantages of significant porosity, large specific surface area, adjustable chemical composition, and structure tailorability, these unique features make them a promising candidate for controlled drug delivery.

Areas covered

This review aims to summarize recent advances in the development of MOFs for drug delivery, in particular, focusing on its ability to deliver various drugs and their release mechanism, as well as the in vivo and in vitro biological evaluation. Moreover, the future research directions of MOFs for clinical treatment are also outlined.

Expert opinion

Although large numbers of MOFs have been developed as nanocarriers for drug delivery, further improvements are still needed to advance the application of MOFs in the clinic. For example, the circulation mechanism and degradation process of MOFs in vivo, the efficiency and pharmacokinetics of drugs in vivo, and the biological evaluation of MOFs in the controlled release of drugs. The present review work main focus on the recent progress of MOFs as effective nanocarriers for drug delivery and to examine some challenges and directions for its further clinical applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Metal-organic frameworks
• nanocarriers
• drug delivery
• biological evaluation

Acknowledgments

This research was partially funded by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515110260), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2021A1515011616), Scientific research project of Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau of Guangdong Province (20211227), Featured Innovation Project of Guangdong Province (2019KTSCX052 and 2019KTSCX053), the Public Research and Capacity Building Projects of Department of Guangdong Province grant number (2017A010103022), and Key scientific research project of Colleges and Universities of Education Department of Guangdong Province (20202ZDZX2046 and 2021ZDZX2052), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Medical University (GDMUM2020022) and the Panfeng 100 Joint Training Program of Guangdong Medical University (PF100-1-03), Guangdong Medical University Research Project (4SG21265P and 4SG22265P) and Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Fund (No. 4SG21006G and No. 4SG22006G), and Dongguan Social Development Science and Technology Project (No. 20211800904802).

Article highlights

• The biological evaluations of MOFs on the controlled drug release was systematically summarized.

• Different strategies of MOFs for the controlled drug release was thoroughly outlined.

• The factors affecting sustained release and the related structure–activity relationship are explained in detail

• The sustained-release mechanism of these preparation materials was compared and analyzed

• Challenges and perspectives of MOFs as nanocarriers for further clinical applications was proposed.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.