Metal‐Organic Frameworks Deliver a Conjugate of Functional Oligonucleotides and Photosensitizer to Induce Apoptosis for Enhancing Chemotherapy

Abstract

Metal‐organic frameworks are highly porous and biodegradable and have found numerous applications in biomedicine. However, the traditional chemotherapy of MOF‐drug delivery system remains a great challenge because of adverse side effects and cell tolerance. In this work, we have fabricated a hybrid drug delivery system based on ZIF‐90 encapsulated with Doxorubicin (DOX) and Ce6‐G3139 for enhanced chemotherapy. The released DOX can enter cell nucleus and trigger cell death. In addition, the G3139 binds to the anti‐apoptotic gene Bcl‐2 in tumor cells and related proteins are downregulated to inhibit cell proliferation. Meanwhile, the photosensitizer Ce6 carried by the nucleic acid will generate abundant reactive oxygen species under a near‐infrared (NIR) laser irradiation thus induces more cell apoptosis. It was worth mentioning that in vitro MTT test in the MCF‐7 cells assays revealed that DOX@ ZIF‐90/Ce6‐G3139 nanoparticles possessed stronger anticancer capability than free DOX or DOX@ ZIF‐90 nanoparticles indicating that the investigation offers an exciting new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of chemotherapy.

Understanding the role of metal–organic frameworks in cancer treatment

“…Similarly, ZIF-90 with Zn( ii ) ion and imidazole-2-carboxaldehyde ligand can also be used to achieve the lysosomal escape of DOX. 77 In some cases, one should apply special enzymes to activate prodrugs in the chemotherapy system so as to achieve enhanced treatment efficiency. However, the natural properties of enzymes endow them with poor stability in some physiological environments.…”

Metal-Organic Frameworks Facilitate Nucleic Acids for Multimode Synergistic Therapy of Breast Cancer

“…Furthermore, ZIF-90 is also an ideal pH-responsive nanodrug delivery platform because it can be dissociated by the protonation effect. Owing to these special advantages, therefore, the application of MOFs as a carrier for cancer therapy has been largely reported. − …”