A nanosystem of copper(II)-disulfiram for cancer treatment with high efficacy and few side effects

Developing chemotherapy drugs with high efficacy and few side effects has been a bottleneck problem that requires an efficient solution. The active cancer treatment ingredient disulfiram (DSF), inspired by the copper(II) diethyldithiocarbamate complex (CuET), can be used in a one-pot synthesis method to construct a CuET delivery nanosystem (CuET-ZIFCu@HA). Due to the high biocompatibility, targeting of CD44 overexpressed cancer cells, and acid response of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) materials of hyaluronic acid (HA), we realized that CuET-ZIFCu@HA could become an effective and highly selective cancer treatment. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have demonstrated that CuET-ZIFCu@HA has robust anti-tumor properties without evident side effects. This research provided a promising strategy for DSF nanosystems that involves simple preparation and high efficacy, both of which are key to reusing DSF in cancer treatment.