Toward Understanding Drug Incorporation and Delivery from Biocompatible Metal-Organic Frameworks in View of Cutaneous Administration

Although metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) have widely
demonstrated their convenient performances as drug-delivery systems, there is
still work to do to fully understand the drug incorporation/delivery processes
from these materials. In this work, a combined experimental and
computational investigation of the main structural and physicochemical
parameters driving drug adsorption/desorption kinetics was carried out. Two
model drugs (aspirin and ibuprofen) and three water-stable, biocompatible
MOFs (MIL-100(Fe), UiO-66(Zr), and MIL-127(Fe)) have been selected to
obtain a variety of drug−matrix couples with different structural and
physicochemical characteristics. This study evidenced that the drug-loading
and drug-delivery processes are mainly governed by structural parameters
(accessibility of the framework and drug volume) as well as the MOF/drug
hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance. As a result, the delivery of the drug under
simulated cutaneous conditions (aqueous media at 37 °C) demonstrated that
these systems fulfill the requirements to be used as topical drug-delivery systems, such as released payload between 1 and 7 days.
These results highlight the importance of the rational selection of MOFs, evidencing the effect of geometrical and chemical
parameters of both the MOF and the drug on the drug adsorption and release.