Coordination-Responsive Drug Release inside Gold Nanorod@MOF for NIR-Induced Synergistic Chemo-Photothermal Therapy

Multifunctional core-shell nanostructures by integration of distinct components have received wide attention as a promising biological platform in recent years. In this work, the crystalline zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), a typical metal-organic framework (MOF), is coated onto single gold nanorod (AuNR) core for successful realization of synergistic photothermal and chemotherapy triggered by near-infrared (NIR) light. Impressively, the high doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) loading capacity followed by pH and NIR light dual stimuli-responsive DOX release can be easily implemented through formation and breakage of coordination bonds in the system. Moreover, under 808 nm NIR laser irradiation, these novel core-shell NP@MOF nanostructures exhibit effective chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy both in vitro and in vivo, confirmed by both cell treatment and tumor ablation via intravenous injection.