Biological metal-organic frameworks: Structures, host-guest chemistry and bio-applications

Biological metal-organic frameworks (BioMOFs) are a new class of crystalline porous materials developed in the last decade that represent a subclass of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Biomolecules introduced as components of MOFs confer biological compatibility for this emerging type of material, thus providing new opportunities for applications in biology, medicine, and a variety of other fields. In this review, to focus on host-guest chemistry and applications in biology and biochemistry, we provide an overview of recent examples of BioMOFs comprising multifunctional biomolecular ligands and transition metal ions. The bio-ligands include nucleobases, amino acids, polypeptides, proteins, cyclodextrin, porphyrin/metalloporphyrin and others. The host-guest chemistry of BioMOFs is highlighted in light of supramolecular recognition by different technologies. The potential applications of BioMOFs in several promising research fields such as drug delivery, enantioseparation and biomimetic catalysis are also summarized. In the last section, the outlook and possible challenges in advancing these research topics are illustrated. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.