Hyaluronic acid-modified Fe-based metal-organic framework loaded with cisplatin for targeted lung cancer therapy

Lung cancer is still the most common cause of cancer fatalities around the world. To address these issues, we fabricated a cisplatin-containing hyaluronic acid-modified Fe-MOF that was designed to release drugs in response to changes in pH and actively target lung cancer cells. The incorporation of HA, which specifically binds to CD44 receptors that are overexpressed on the surface of lung cancer cells, improves cellular uptake and therapeutic effectiveness. The pH-dependent behavior is confirmed by in vitro drug release experiments, demonstrating little cisplatin release at physiological pH and enhanced release within the acidic tumor microenvironment. Cytotoxicity studies showed that HA/Fe-MOF/CP is more effective against A549 lung cancer cells than free cisplatin (82.72% inhibition at 50 µM and IC₅₀ = 17.3 ± 0.5 µM). HA/Fe-MOF/CP showed less toxicity to normal BEAS-2B cells (85.34% viability and IC₅₀ > 40 µM), while free cisplatin showed more toxicity to BEAS-2B cells (23.16% inhibition and IC₅₀ > 40 µM). The uncoated Fe-MOF/CP inhibited A549 cells by 76.42% (IC₅₀ = 22.4 ± 0.3 µM), which indicates a moderate level of effectiveness. Fe-MOF has been altered a significant effect on cancer cells (60.41% inhibition and IC₅₀ = 35.6 ± 0.5 µM) and worked well with BEAS-2B cells (89.31% viability).