Superlow Dosage of Intrinsically Bioactive Zinc Metal–Organic Frameworks to Modulate Endothelial Cell Morphogenesis and Significantly Rescue Ischemic Disease

Despite long-term efforts for ischemia therapy, proangiogenic drugs hardly satisfy therapy/safety/cost/mass production multiple evaluations and meanwhile with a desire to minimize dosages, thereby clinical applications have been severely hampered. Recently, metal ion-based therapy has emerged as an effective strategy. Herein, intrinsically bioactive Zn metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) were explored by bridging the dual superiorities of proangiogenic Zn2+ and facile/cost-effective/scalable MOFs. Zn-MOFs could enhance the morphogenesis of vascular endothelial cells (ECs) via the PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway. However, high dosage is inevitable and Zn-MOFs suffer from insolubility and low stability, which lead to the bioaccumulation of Zn-MOFs and seriously potential toxicity risks. To alleviate this, it is required to decrease the dosage, but this can be entrapped into the dosage/therapy/safety contradiction and disappointing therapy effect. To address these challenges, the bioavailability of Zn-MOFs is urgent to improve for the minimization of dosage and significant therapy/safety. The mitochondrial respiratory chain is Zn2+ active, which inspired us to codecorate EC-targeted and mitochondria-localizing-sequence peptides onto Zn-MOF surfaces. Interestingly, after codecoration, a 100-fold reduced dosage acquired equally powerful vascularization, and the superlow dosage significantly rescued ischemia (4.4 μg kg–1, about one order of magnitude lower than the published minimal value). Additionally, no obvious muscle injury was found after treatment. Potential toxicity risks were alleviated, benefiting from the superlow dosage. This advanced drug simultaneously satisfied comprehensive evaluations and dosage minimization. This work utilizes engineering thought to rationally design "all-around" bioactive MOFs and is expected to be applied for ischemia treatment.