Development of UiO‐66 and ZIF‐8 MOF Nanocarriers for Anticancer Drug Delivery in Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), characterized by their extensive surface area, biocompatibility, and pH‐sensitive degradation have emerged as promising candidates for drug delivery systems (DDSs). This study focused on the development of zinc based zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF8) and zirconium‐based framework (UiO‐66) MOFs as effective nanocarriers for delivery of broad‐spectrum chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), aiming to mitigate adverse side effects in breast cancer treatment. The nanocarriers, ZIF‐8 and UiO‐66 achieved a maximum drug loading efficiency of about between 79% and 75% at a drug‐to‐particle ratio of 1:10, and exhibited their pH‐responsive release, which is essential for cancer therapy. The in vitro therapeutic efficacy of developed DDSs was explored on breast cancer (MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231) cell lines as well lung normal cells (WI26VA4). From confocal microscopic studies, it has been observed that a substantial amount of DOX is internalized into the cancer cells in a time‐dependent manner. It is noteworthy to mention that both the developed drug formulations (DOX@UiO‐66 and DOX@ZIF‐8) showed dose‐dependent toxicity towards cancer cell lines. Moreover, the cell viability studies performed with pure ZIF‐8 and UiO‐66 MOFs against normal as well as cancer cells demonstrated their biocompatibility nature even at a high concentration of 50 µg/mL. These findings underscore the potential of ZIF‐8 and UiO‐66 MOFs as effective and biocompatible platforms for drug delivery in breast cancer therapy.