α-lipoic acid (α-lip) modification on surface of nano-scaled zeolitic imidazole Framework-8 for enhanced drug delivery

Curcumin (CCM) is a natural ingredient with anti-cancer activity. However, the application of CCM is limited in clinical medicine due to its high hydrophobicity and low bioavailability. Hence, it is necessary for development of a feasible strategy for efficient drug delivery and cancer cell-selective targeting. In recent years, nano-scaled metal-organic frameworks (NanoMOFs) have received much attention as an attractive drug delivery carrier due to their unique features of their various sizes, adjustable pore structures , high stability, and easy surface modification. Here, we report a novel composite nanomaterial (denoted as ZIF-8&α-lip) for CCM loading by one-pot method. This synthetic method is simple and rapid, and the final product (CCM@ZIF-8&α-lip) can be obtained within 20 ​min. In addition, the obtained CCM@ZIF-8&α-lip shows greater growth inhibition of HepG2 cells in comparison with CCM@ZIF-8. Therefore, ZIF-8&α-lip can be used as an ideal drug carrier and propose a new strategy to improve nanoMOFs performance for efficient drug delivery.