Functionalized biological metal-organic framework with nanosized coronal structure and hierarchical wrapping pattern for enhanced targeting therapy

Huafeng Wang; Shi Li; Lei Wang; Zimei Liao; Hang Zhang; Tianxiang Wei; Zhihui Dai

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2022.140963

Functionalized biological metal-organic framework with nanosized coronal structure and hierarchical wrapping pattern for enhanced targeting therapy

Chem Eng J. 2023 Jan 15:456:140963. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.140963. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

Authors

Huafeng Wang¹, Shi Li², Lei Wang¹, Zimei Liao¹, Hang Zhang¹, Tianxiang Wei², Zhihui Dai^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.

Abstract

Inefficient tumor-targeted delivery and uncontrolled drug release are the major obstacles in cancer chemotherapy. Herein, inspired by the targeting advantage of coronavirus from its size and coronal structure, a coronal biological metal-organic framework nanovehicle (named as corona-BioMOF) is constructed for improving its precise cancer targeting ability. The designed corona-BioMOF is constructed as the carriers-encapsulated carrier model by inner coated with abundant protein-nanocaged doxorubicin particles and external decorated with high-affinity apoferritin proteins to form the spiky surface for constructing the specific coronal structure. The corona-BioMOF shows a higher affinity and an enhanced targeting ability towards receptor-positive cancer cells compared to that of MOF-drug composites without spiky surface. It also exhibits the hierarchical wrapping pattern-endowed controlled lysosome-specific drug release and remarkable tumor lethality in vivo. Moreover, water-induced surface defect-based protein handle mechanism is first proposed to shape the coronal-BioMOF. This work will provide a better inspiration for nanovehicle construction and be broadly useful for clinical precision nanomedicine.

Keywords: Cancer therapy; Coronal structure; Drug delivery; Metal-organic framework; Precise targeting.