Folic acid grafted aminated zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) as pH responsive drug carrier for targeted delivery of curcumin

Smart drug delivery systems responding to pH gradient between physiological conditions and acidic conditions in tumor cells are very crucial for treating cancer. This article describes the process of developing, zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) based novel pH responsive drug carrier for the targeted delivery of curcumin (CUR). To enable folic acid (FA) conjugation the surface of ZIF-8 was modified through amination. The so developed CUR loaded folic acid grafted aminated ZIF-8 ([email protected]) were characterized with UV–Visible, FT-IR, PXRD, SEM, TGA, TEM and BET analysis. It shows high drug loading efficiency and good chemical stability. In vitro drug release studies of CUR from folic acid grafted aminated ZIF-8 (FA-g- AZIF-8) shows three times higher efficiency in acidic pH (5) than in normal physiological conditions (pH 7.4). The potential cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT assay on HeLa cells, [email protected] shows 76.8% cytotoxicity. The results show that FA-g-AZIF-8 is a promising drug carrier for targeted drug delivery.