Insights into Drug-Loading Capacity of Bio-Zirconium Metal-Organic Frameworks Nanoparticles for Tetracycline Hydrochloride

The discovery of a highly efficient drug delivery system with high biocompatibility and good loading/release properties is a key challenging issue. In the past decade, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great interest as drug delivery systems (DDSs), due to their high porosity, tunable functionality, and large drug loading capacities. Herein, we report the potential use of a new family of biocompatible MOFs called bio-MOFs synthesized from bio-based ligands and water-based synthesis for drug delivery. We propose a facile method to synthesize MIP-202 (bio-based Zr-MOF) built from Zr metal nodes and aspartic acid as an amino acid ligand. The efficiency of loading tetracycline hydrochloride drug onto MIP-202 and UiO-66-NH 2 has been carefully studied. Characterization techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy have been used for structural and morphological confirmation. The loading capacity of tetracycline hydrochloride on UiO-66-NH 2 was determined to be higher than MIP-202 reaching up to 50.3%. The results provide an investigated insight into the utilization of bio-based MOFs as drug carriers for tetracycline hydrochloride.