Metal-organic frameworks for advanced drug delivery

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), comprised of organic ligands and metal ions/metal clusters via coordinative bonds are highly porous, crystalline materials. Their tunable porosity, chemical composition, size and shape, and easy surface functionalization make this large family more and more popular for drug delivery. There is a growing interest over the last decades in the design of engineered MOFs with controlled sizes for a variety of biomedical applications. This article presents an overall review and perspectives of MOFs-based drug delivery systems (DDSs), starting with the MOFs classification adapted for DDSs based on the types of constituting metals and ligands. Then, the synthesis and characterization of MOFs for DDSs are developed, followed by the drug loading strategies, applications, biopharmaceutics and quality control. Importantly, a variety of representative applications of MOFs are detailed from a point of view of applications in pharmaceutics, diseases therapy and advanced DDSs. In particular, the biopharmaceutics and quality control of MOFs-based DDSs are summarized with critical issues to be addressed. Finally, challenges in MOFs development for DDSs are discussed, such as biostability, biosafety, biopharmaceutics and nomenclature. (C) 2021 Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous, crystalline materials composed of organic ligands and metal ions/metal clusters. They are increasingly popular in drug delivery due to their tunable porosity, chemical composition, and surface functionalization capabilities. Despite their potential in biomedical applications, challenges such as biostability and biosafety need to be addressed in the development of MOFs for drug delivery systems.