Targeted drug delivery for Cancer therapy using Cu(bpdc) and Ni(bpdc) - MOFs

Abstract

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as potentially useful porous materials due to their high surface area, ordered porous structure and versatility in the field of drug delivery and photocatalysis. Understanding the molecular and structural interactions that enable these MOFs to exhibit both high photocatalytic activity and effective drug delivery remains a key challenge. This study highlights the synthesis and evaluation of Cu and Ni-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using biphenyl-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid as a ligand and DMF as a solvent via a hydrothermal method in a stainless-steel Teflon autoclave. The Cu(bpdc)-MOF and Ni(bpdc)-MOF demonstrated exceptional degradation efficiencies for congo red under UV–Visible light, achieving 99 % and 97 % degradation at 140 and 160 min, respectively. This highlights their potential for environmental remediation. Furthermore, these MOFs, when loaded with cisplatin through a simple impregnation method, exhibited significant cytotoxicity against breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells, with cell viabilities of 37.63 % and 40.7 % at the higher concentration of 100 μg/mL with the IC₅₀ values of 55.78 μg/mL and 62.15 μg/mL. However, challenges remain in optimizing the synthesis process to improve reproducibility and scalability and further understanding the interactions governing their dual functionality in photo catalysis and drug delivery. These findings offer valuable insights into the development of multifunctional MOFs for environmental and biomedical applications.