Thermal Stimuli-Triggered Drug Release from a Biocompatible Porous Metal-Organic Framework

Drug delivery carriers with a high drug loading capacity and biocompatibility, especially for controlled drug release, are urgently needed due to the side effects and frequently dose in the traditional therapeutic method. In our work, a Zr-based metal-organic framework named ZJU-801, which is isoreticular with NU-801, has been designed and further demonstrated as an excellent drug delivery system (DDS) with a high drug loading of 41.7 %. Such a high drug loading capacity may be ascribed to the appropriate match of the size and the large pore volume of this kind of Zr MOF material. Compared with DS@NU-801, this DDS has successfully achieved on-command heating-activated drug release, which was probably attributed to the bulkier ligand, the better stability, and the intense π-π interaction between ZJU-801 and diclofenac sodium (DS) demonstrated comprehensively by SEM, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), FTIR and ¹³ C solid-state NMR spectroscopy as well as computer simulations. It is worth noting that premature drug release was avoided effectively without any complicated post-modifications. The low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility of our DDS were certificated by the in vitro favorable results from an MTT assay, a WST-1 assay, and confocal microscopy imaging.