Norfloxacin (NFX),
an important antibacterial fluoroquinolone,
is a class IV drug according to the biopharmaceutics classification
system (BCS) and has low solubility and permeability issues. Such
poor physicochemical properties of drug molecules lead to poor delivery
and are of serious concern to the pharmaceutical industry for clinical
development. We present here a conceptually new approach to deliver
NFX, by loading the drug molecule on the porous platform of a biocompatible
metal–organic framework (MOF), MIL-100(Fe). The loading of
the drug on the MOF leading to NFX@MIL-100(Fe) was characterized by
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV–visible spectroscopy,
thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), and nitrogen adsorption studies.
Controlled experiments resulted in the high loading of the drug molecule
(∼20 wt %) along with the desired sustained release. We could
further control the release of norfloxacin by coating drug-loaded
MIL-100(Fe) with PEG, PEG{NFX@MIL-100(Fe)}. Both drug delivery systems
(DDSs), NFX@MIL-100(Fe) and PEG{NFX@MIL-100(Fe)}, were tested for
their biocompatibility through toxicity studies. The DDSs are biocompatible
and show insignificant cytotoxicity, as revealed by cell viability
studies through the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium
bromide (MTT) assay.