One Stone Two Birds: Zr-Fc Metal-Organic Framework Nanosheet for Synergistic Photothermal and Chemodynamic Cancer Therapy

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified as promising materials for the delivery of therapeutics to cure cancer owing to their intrinsic porous structure. However, in a majority of cases, MOFs act as only a delivery cargo for anticancer drugs while little attention has been focused on the utilization of their intriguing physical and chemical properties for potential anticancer purposes. Herein for the first time, an ultrathin (16.4 nm thick) ferrocene-based MOF (Zr-Fc MOF) nanosheet has been synthesized for synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) and Fenton reaction-based chemodynamic (CDT) therapy to cure cancer without additional drugs. The Zr-Fc MOF nanosheet acts not only as an excellent photothermal agent with a prominent photothermal conversion efficiency of 53% at 808 nm but also as an efficient Fenton catalyst to promote the conversion of H2O2 into hydroxyl radical (center dot OH). As a consequence, an excellent therapeutic performance has been achieved in vitro as well as in vivo through this combinational effect. This work aims to construct an all-in-one MOF nanoplatform for PTT and CDT treatments without incorporating any additional therapeutics, which may launch a new era in the investigation of MOF-based synergistic therapy platforms for cancer therapy.