Recent Advancements in the Applications of Covalent Organic Frameworks for Cancer Therapeutics: A Review

Abstract

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have gained significant attention in recent years as efficient cancer therapeutics owing to their uniform porosity, biocompatibility, diversified structures and stability in the biological medium. This review aimed to explore different synthetic strategies to obtain COFs for biomedical applications. Several synthetic procedures viz. solvothermal synthesis, ionothermal synthesis, microwave synthesis, mechanochemical synthesis, sonochemical synthesis have discussed been in terms of their applications in cancer therapy. The cancer therapeutics involves cancer drug delivery, photodynamic therapy (PDT), photo thermal therapy (PTT) and sonodynamic therapy (SDT). In some instances, single therapeutics treatments appear as inadequate effect and thus necessitate combination therapies for effective cancer termination with minimal side effects. The current study covers all the main synthetic techniques and uses of COFs in various cancer therapeutic treatments.