A ZIF-based drug delivery system as three-in-one platform for joint cancer therapy

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), as an emerging class of organic-inorganic hybrid crystalline porous materials, have recently geared increasing attention in analytical and biomedical fields. However, it still an enormous challenge for the joint cancer therapy with ZIFs. In this work, a biocompatible ZIF-90-based intelligent platform (ZIF-TAPP-DOX) was developed by covalently anchoring of porphyrin and doxorubicin (DOX), simultaneously into ZIF-90 via amine bond, which was used for photodynamic/photothermal/chemotherapy-based combination therapy. ZIF-TAPP-DOX could not only realize the simultaneously delivering of photosensitizer (porphyrin) and DOX selectively into the tumor tissues, but also the tumor acidic pH microenvironment triggered drug release, thus realizing a cooperatively amplified joint therapy, which was demonstrated systematically in vitro and in vivo. This work offered new insights for the development of intelligent multi-mode MOF-based therapeutic system for accurate cancer diagnosis and therapy.