Abstract
Biocompatible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)have emergedas potential nanocarriers for drug delivery applications owing totheir tunable physiochemical properties. Specifically, Mg-MOF-74 withsoluble metal centers has been shown to promote rapid pharmacokineticsfor some drugs. In this work, we studied how the solubility of drugimpacts the pharmacokinetic release rate and delivery efficiency byimpregnating various amounts of ibuprofen, 5-fluorouracil, and curcuminonto Mg-MOF-74. The characterization of the drug-loaded samples viaX-ray diffraction (XRD), N-2 physisorption, and Fouriertransform infrared (FTIR) confirmed the successful encapsulation of30, 50, and 80 wt % of the three drugs within the MOF structure. Assessmentof the drug delivery performances of the MOF under its various loadingsvia HPLC tests revealed that the release rate is a direct functionof drug solubility and molecular size. Of the three drugs consideredunder fixed loading condition, the 5-fluorouracil-loaded MOF samplesexhibited the highest release rate constants which was attributedto the highest degree of solubility and smallest molecular size of5-fluorouracil relative to ibuprofen and curcumin. It was also notedthat the release kinetics decreases with drug loading, due to a pharmacokineticshift in release mechanism from singular to binary modes of compounddiffusion. The findings of this study highlight the effects of drug'sphysical and chemical properties on the pharmacokinetic rates fromMOF nanocarriers.
