• Synthesis of UiO-66 nanoparticles containing Paclitaxel for lung cancer treatment
  • Hanieh Jafari,1 Maryam Bikhof Torbati,2,* Ahmad Majd,3 Mohammad Yosefi3,4
    1. Department of biology- faculty of biological science-Azad university- North Tehran Branch- Tehran- Iran
    2. Department of Biology, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini (RAH) Shahr-e-Rey Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
    3. Department of biology- faculty of biological science-Azad university- North Tehran Branch- Tehran- Iran
    4. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are emerging as suitable candidates for nanoscale drug delivery due to their high drug carrying capacity and ease of operation. The nanoporous UiO-66 as a kind of MOFs is attract for loading of one cargo molecule in drug delivery with very high surface area, excellent biocompatibility and chemical modifiability. Paclitaxel is an anti-proliferative drug and widely used for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Paclitaxel binds to microtubules and inhibits microtubule depolarization during mitosis due to cell death. In this study, in order to reduce the unwanted side effects and the controlled release of paclitaxel and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, UiO-66 nanoparticles were synthesized and loaded with paclitaxel for the application in lung cancer treatment.
  • Methods: UiO-66 was synthesized by a solvent thermal method. In brief, 1.165 g of ZrCl4 and 0.831 g of BDC were dissolved in 30 mL DMF, and then 0.8 mL of concentrated HCl (37%) was added. The obtained mixture was ultrasouned in a reactor for 20 min and heated in a Teflon-lined steel autoclave at 120◦C temperature for 24 h duration time. The obtained suspension of UiO-66 was cooled and centrifuged at 9000 rpm for 10 min. Then the residue was washed three times with 25 mL of DMF and 25 mL of anhydrous methanol, respectively. The obtained UiO-66 was dried at 100 ◦C under vacuum and characterized by IR spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). Then the loading of paclitaxel was performed on the UiO-66 nanocarrier in ethanol buffer with a weight ratio of 0.1 to 1 (drug/nanocarrier) by hemogenizer for 30 min. The Drug-loading content was calculated after drawing the standard paclitaxel curve by UV/visible spectroscopy- based assay.
  • Results: The FTIR spectra of UiO-66 display the peaks at 1700 cm−1 and 1400 cm−1 correspond to the symmetrical stretching vibrations of the C=O bond in the -COO- group, at 1506 cm−1 and 1581 cm cm-1 are assigned to the C=C stretching vibration of the phenyl ring. Also, the peak at 745 cm-1 is consistent with the symmetric vibration peak of O-Zr-O and the symmetric vibration peak of O-Zr-O at 663 cm-1. Finally, these results confirmed the synthesized UiO-66. The drug-loading efficiency was calculated and showed high paclitaxol-loading content up to 57% on UiO-66.
  • Conclusion: In this investigation, we succeeded in effective loading of paclitaxol on the UiO-66 nanocarrier due to controlled drug delivery in cancer treatment .
  • Keywords: UiO-66, Paclitaxel, drug delivery, cancer