Metal-Organic Frameworks Deliver a Conjugate of Functional Oligonucleotides and Photosensitizer to Induce Apoptosis for Enhancing Chemotherapy

Graphical A hybrid drug delivery system based on ZIF-90 encapsulated with Doxorubicin and Ce6-G3139 has been established to induce apoptosis for enhanced chemotherapy. Metal-organic frameworks are highly porous and biodegradable and have found numerous applications in biomedicine. However, the traditional chemotherapy of MOF-drug delivery system remains a great challenge because of adverse side effects and cell tolerance. In this work, we have fabricated a hybrid drug delivery system based on ZIF-90 encapsulated with Doxorubicin (DOX) and Ce6-G3139 for enhanced chemotherapy. The released DOX can enter cell nucleus and trigger cell death. In addition, the G3139 binds to the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 in tumor cells and related proteins are downregulated to inhibit cell proliferation. Meanwhile, the photosensitizer Ce6 carried by the nucleic acid will generate abundant reactive oxygen species under a near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation thus induces more cell apoptosis. It was worth mentioning that in vitro MTT test in the MCF-7 cells assays revealed that DOX@ ZIF-90/Ce6-G3139 nanoparticles possessed stronger anticancer capability than free DOX or DOX@ ZIF-90 nanoparticles indicating that the investigation offers an exciting new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of chemotherapy.