Potent activity of Metal-Organic Framework nanoparticles loaded by hydrophobic natural products via one-pot synthetic method against pancreatic cancers

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been recently proposed as a new nanoscale drug delivery vector posing significant surface area and tunable chemo physical properties. The main procedure of encapsulation of anticancer drugs into the MOFs are post synthetic methods (PSM), however that is time/energy consuming and often not be reproducible in large scale. Further, PSM method would not be applicable without coating due to the burst drug release. Herein, we report a new strategy of incorporating of hydrophobic natural drugs into zirconium terephthalate MOF UiO-66 via one-pot synthetic route. The drugs are added by one-pot solvothermal method and uniformly distributed throughout the MOFs surfaces. Potency of formulation showed a 7-fold increase compared to PSM MOFs against 3D cultured pancreatic cancers and can be applicable for other hydrophobic drugs.