Fabrication of a microporous Dy(III)-organic framework with polar channels for 5-Fu (fluorouracil) delivery and inhibiting human brain tumor cells

Porous metal-organic framework (MOF) is currently of great interest not only for its attractive structures but also because of its potential application in the biomedical field as effective drug delivery systems (DDSs). In this work, we have succeeded in the construction of a new porous lanthanide Dy(III)-organic framework, [Dy(BTC)(H2O)](H2O)(DMF) (1, BTC=1,3,5-bezenetricarboxylate, DMF=N,N-dimethylformamide), with abundant of open metal sites in the 1D channels though an one pot of solvothermal reaction. The structure of the obtained crystalline product has been fully determined by the X-ray single crystal diffraction, TGA, power X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, and the gas sorption measurement. Due to the suitable window size and open metal sites functionalized 1D channels, the activated 1 (1a) was used for loading the anticancer drug 5-Fu (Fluorouracil) by a simple impregnation method. A moderate drug loading and pH-dependent drug-release behavior could be observed for 1a. Furthermore, as revealed by the MTT assay, this 5-Fu@1a system shows low toxicity toward the human normal cells and demonstrates obvious anticancer activity against human brain tumor cells SF17.