Metal-organic framework for biomimetic nitric oxide generation and anticancer drug delivery

The potential therapeutic implications of nitric oxide (NO) have drawn a great deal of interest for reversing multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer; however, previous strategies utilized unstable or toxic NO donors often oxidized by the excessive addition of reactive oxygen species, leading to unexpected side effects. Therefore, this study proposed a metal-organic framework (MOF), Porous coordination network (PCN)-223-Fe, to be loaded with a biocompatible NO donor, L-arginine (L-arg; i.e., PCN-223-Fe/L-arg). This specific MOF possesses a ligand of Fe-porphyrin, a biomimetic catalyst. Thus, with PCN-223-Fe/L-arg, L-arg was released in a sustained manner, which generated NO by a catalytic reaction between L-arg and Fe-porphyrin in PCN-223-Fe. Through this biomimetic process, PCN-223-Fe/L-arg could generate sufficient NO to reverse MDR at the expense of hydrogen peroxide already present and highly expressed in cancer environments. For treatment of MDR cancer, this study also proposed PCN-223-Fe loaded with an anticancer drug, irinotecan (CPT-11; i.e., PCN-223-Fe/CPT-11), to be formulated together with PCN-223-Fe/L-arg. Owing to the synergistic effect of reversed MDR by NO generation and sustained release of CPT-11, this combined formulation exhibited a higher anticancer effect on MDR cancer cells (MCF-7/ADR). When intratumorally injected in vivo, coadministration of PCN-223-Fe/L-arg and PCN-223-Fe/CPT-11 greatly suppressed tumor growth in nude mice bearing MDR tumors.