Zirconium metal organic framework/aloe vera carrier loaded with naproxen as a versatile platform for drug delivery

This research aims to find an effective method to incorporate the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen (NAP) into a prototype zirconium metal–organic frameworks nanohybrid (Zr-MOF@NAP) and aloe vera (AV) biopolymer (Zr-MOF@NAP/AV) as a specific intestinal delivery vehicle. NAP entrapment efficiency and loading capacity were found to be 87.0% and 44.0%, respectively (Zr-MOF@NAP/AV). During the initial 2 h in the simulated stomach media, Zr-MOF@NAP released about 100% of the loaded NAP. Zr-MOF@NAP was coated with AV in order to overcome this challenge. As a result of the pH-responsive nature of AV, Zr-MOF@NAP/AV showed limited drug release at pH 1.2 and a higher percentage of drug release at pH 6.8 and 7.4. MTT assay was used to determine the in vitro cytotoxicity of Zr-MOF@NAP and Zr-MOF@NAP/AV against human fibroblast cells (HFFF2), and these results showed good cytocompatibility.