A Novel Design of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide-based Metal-Organic Framework for SSI-assisted Drug Delivery System

A novel drug nanocarrier with a magnetic core and an organic framework (MOF) shell was constructed by in situ growth of a three-dimensional network ZIF-8 on the surface of carboxy-functionalized Fe3O4. The resulting drug delivery system (DDS) showed strong superparamagnetism, boasting exceptional magnetization saturation at 11.15 emu/g, an impressive magnetocaloric effect of a temperature rise of 12.9 °C within 6 minutes at 20 A, and a significant T2-weighted MR image property. The drug encapsulation ability was investigated by loading a model drug namely curcumaol (CUR) onto the nanocarriers through supercritical solution impregnation (SSI) technology. The resulting Fe3O4@ZIF-8-CUR achieved a maximum loading content of 2.2 wt%, displaying 3.4 times higher than that using ethanol impregnation process. As expected, a continuous drug release behavior of Fe3O4@ZIF-8-CUR was observed. This study presents a state-of-the-art methodology of designing biocompatible DDSs with magnetic responsiveness for advanced drug delivery applications.