The Progress and Prospect of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks in Cancer Therapy, Antibacterial Activity, and Biomineralization

• Published in: Advanced healthcare materials Vol. 9; no. 12; pp. e2000248 - n/a
• Main Authors: Maleki, Aziz, Shahbazi, Mohammad‐Ali, Alinezhad, Vajiheh, Santos, Hélder A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-06-2020
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibacterial activity; antibacterial therapies; Antibiotics; Biocompatibility; Biodegradability; Biomineralization; Cancer therapies; Drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Humans; Medical imaging; Metal-Organic Frameworks; Mineralization; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Pore size; Porosity; Proteins; Surface stability; Thermal stability; Zeolites; ZIF nanoparticles; antibacterial therapies; cancer therapies; ZIF nanoparticles; biomineralization; metal-organic frameworks
• ISSN: 2192-2640; 2192-2659
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202000248

The progressive development of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), as a subfamily of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), and their unique features, including tunable pore size, large surface area, high thermal stability, and biodegradability/biocompatibility, have made them attractive in the field of biomedicine, especially for drug delivery and biomineralization applications. The high porosity of ZIFs gives them the opportunity for encapsulating a high amount of therapeutic drugs, proteins, imaging cargos, or a combination of them to construct advanced multifunctional drug delivery systems (DDSs) with combined therapeutic and imaging capabilities. This review summarizes recent strategies on the design and fabrication of ZIF‐based nansystems and their exploration in the biomedical field. First, recent developments for the adjustment of particle size, functionality, and morphology of ZIFs are discussed, which are important for achieving optimized therapeutic/theranostic nanosystems. Second, recent trends on the application of ZIF nanocarriers for the loading of diverse cargos, including anticancer medicines, antibiotic drugs, enzymes, proteins, photosensitizers, as well as imaging and photothermal agents, are investigated in order to understand how multifunctional DDSs can be designed based on the ZIF nanoparticles to treat different diseases, such as cancer and infection. Finally, prospects on the future research direction and applications of ZIF‐based nanomedicines are discussed.
Tunable pore size, large surface area, biocompatibility, and pH‐dependent degradability are the main features of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), which have rendered them the potential of being used as a carrier for pH‐responsive drug delivery, cancer therapy, bioimaging, theranostics, and antimicrobial formulations. In this review, the synthesis, functionalization, and the most recent progress of ZIFs in biomedical applications are discussed.