Therapeutic Potency of NO Loaded into Anticancer Copper Metal−Organic Framework through Nonclassical Hydrogen Bonding

Metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential exogenous scaffolds for therapeutic nitric oxide (NO) delivery because they can store drug or bioactive gas molecules within pores or on active metal sites. Herein, we employed a Cu-MOF coordinated with glutarate (glu) and 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane (bpa) to obtain NO-loaded Cu-MOF (NO⊂Cu-MOF). NO loading transformed the space group of Cu-MOF from monoclinic C2/c to triclinic P-1 through nonclassical hydrogen bonding with glu and bpa. Cu-MOF showed good stability in deionized water and phosphate-buffered saline. NO⊂Cu-MOF released up to 1.10 μmol mg−1 NO over 14.6 h at 37 °C, which is suitable for therapeutic applications. NO⊂Cu-MOF showed moderate biocompatibility with L-929 cells and significant anticancer activity against HeLa cells, suggesting an apoptosis-mediated cell death mechanism. These insights into NO bonding modes with Cu-MOF that enable controlled NO release can inspire the design of functional MOFs as hybrid NO donors for drug delivery.