The progressive development of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), as a subfamily of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), and their unique features, including tunable pore size, large surface area, high thermal stability, and biodegradability/biocompatibility, have made them attractive in the field of biomedicine, especially for drug delivery and biomineralization applications. The high porosity of ZIFs gives them the opportunity for encapsulating a high amount of therapeutic drugs, proteins, imaging cargos, or a combination of them to construct advanced multifunctional drug delivery systems (DDSs) with combined therapeutic and imaging capabilities. This review summarizes recent strategies on the design and fabrication of ZIF‐based nansystems and their exploration in the biomedical field. First, recent developments for the adjustment of particle size, functionality, and morphology of ZIFs are discussed, which are important for achieving optimized therapeutic/theranostic nanosystems. Second, recent trends on the application of ZIF nanocarriers for the loading of diverse cargos, including anticancer medicines, antibiotic drugs, enzymes, proteins, photosensitizers, as well as imaging and photothermal agents, are investigated in order to understand how multifunctional DDSs can be designed based on the ZIF nanoparticles to treat different diseases, such as cancer and infection. Finally, prospects on the future research direction and applications of ZIF‐based nanomedicines are discussed.

An efficient and simple synthesis of 2,4,5‐trisubstituted imidazoles is achieved by three‐component cyclocondensation of benzil, aldehyde, and ammonium acetate by using nanosilica‐supported imidazolium ionic liquid as a catalyst under solvent‐free conditions. The key advantages of this process are high to excellent yields, short reaction time, easy work‐up, and the reusability of the catalyst.

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