Mineralization of pH-Sensitive Doxorubicin Prodrug in ZIF-8 to Enable Targeted Delivery to Solid Tumors

The zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8), composed of zinc ion and dimethylimidazole, is widely used in drug delivery because of the easy fabrication process and the good biosafety. However, ZIF-8 suffers from low affinity to nonelectric-rich drugs and does not have surface functional groups. Here, to deliver doxorubicin (DOX) with ZIF-8 to specific target sites, DOX was first modified with a pH-sensitive linker containing two carboxyl groups to form the inactive prodrug CAD and subsequently seeded inside ZIF-8 by a 5 min mineralization process. CAD has high affinity to ZIF-8 because of the carboxyl groups and can anchor to the ZIF-8 surface to enable the surface modification with folic acid for tumor targeting. Moreover, the DOX release is precisely controlled by three steps of acidic pH response, with the dissociation of the FA layer, the breakdown of the ZIF-8 structure, and the cleavage of the pH-sensitive linker in prodrug. This novel prodrug-ZIF-8 strategy has opened a new horizon in drug delivery.