Water-Soluble Flexible Organic Frameworks That Include and Deliver Proteins

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Supramolecular Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Development of novel porous materials for drug delivery.
• Need for water-soluble and biocompatible nanocarriers.
• Challenges in efficient intracellular delivery of proteins.

Purpose of the Study:

• Synthesize and characterize novel water-soluble hydrazone-based organic frameworks (FOF-1-4).
• Investigate the porosity and loading capacity of these frameworks.
• Evaluate their potential for protein delivery into cells.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of FOF-1-4 using tetracationic tetraaldehyde and flexible dihydrazides.
• Characterization using 1H NMR spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering.
• Porosity assessment via ethanol vapor adsorption and guest molecule loading.
• In vitro protein delivery studies using flow cytometry.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of four water-soluble, flexible organic frameworks (FOF-1-4).
• Frameworks exhibit hydrodynamic diameters of 50-120 nm and inherent pore sizes of 5.3-6.7 nm.
• High loading capacity for porphyrin guests and rapid inclusion of proteins (BSA, GFP, OFP).
• Efficient delivery of proteins into normal and cancer cells with up to 99.8% cell delivery rate.

Conclusions:

• FOF-1-4 represent a new class of water-soluble, porous organic frameworks.
• These materials demonstrate excellent biocompatibility and efficient protein encapsulation and delivery capabilities.
• The developed frameworks hold significant promise for advanced drug and protein delivery applications.