Image-guided therapy using maghemite-MOF nanovectors

Advances in nanotechnology offer the possibility of tailored delivery of therapeutics with real-time imaging of disease. In this issue of Chem, Steunou and co-workers amalgamate the powerful MRI properties of ultra-small paramagnetic iron oxides with the excellent drug-delivery capabilities of metal-organic frameworks to produce theranostic nanoparticulate devices for cancer treatment and imaging

Design of a Functionalized Metal-Organic Framework System for Enhanced Targeted Delivery to Mitochondria.

Mitochondria play a key role in oncogenesis and constitute one of the most important targets for cancer treatments. Although the most effective way to deliver drugs to mitochondria is by covalently linking them to a lipophilic cation, the in vivo delivery of free drugs still constitutes a critical bottleneck. Herein, we report the design of a mitochondria-targeted metal-organic framework (MOF) that greatly increases the efficacy of a model cancer drug, reducing the required dose to less than 1% compared to the free drug and ca. 10% compared to the nontargeted MOF. The performance of the system is evaluated using a holistic approach ranging from microscopy to transcriptomics. Super-resolution microscopy of MCF-7 cells treated with the targeted MOF system reveals important mitochondrial morphology changes that are clearly associated with cell death as soon as 30 min after incubation. Whole transcriptome analysis of cells indicates widespread changes in gene expression when treated with the MOF system, specifically in biological processes that have a profound effect on cell physiology and that are related to cell death. We show how targeting MOFs toward mitochondria represents a valuable strategy for the development of new drug delivery systems

Design of a functionalized metal-organic framework system for enhanced targeted delivery to mitochondria

Mitochondria play a key role in oncogenesis and constitute one of the most important targets for cancer treatments. Although the most effective way to deliver drugs to mitochondria is by covalently linking them to a lipophilic cation, the in vivo delivery of free drugs still constitutes a critical bottleneck. Herein, we report the design of a mitochondria-targeted metal-organic framework (MOF) that greatly increases the efficacy of a model cancer drug, reducing the required dose to less than 1% compared to the free drug and ca. 10% compared to the non-targeted MOF. The performance of the system is evaluated using a holistic approach ranging from microscopy to transcriptomics. Super-resolution microscopy of MCF-7 cells treated with the targeted MOF system reveals important mitochondrial morphology changes that are clearly associated with cell death as soon as 30 minutes after incubation. Whole transcriptome analysis of cells indicated widespread changes in gene expression when treated with the MOF system, specifically in biological processes that have a profound effect on cell physiology and that are related to cell death. We show how targeting MOFs towards mitochondria represents a valuable strategy for the development of new drug delivery systems

AVID: An integrative framework for discovering functional relationships among proteins

BACKGROUND: Determining the functions of uncharacterized proteins is one of the most pressing problems in the post-genomic era. Large scale protein-protein interaction assays, global mRNA expression analyses and systematic protein localization studies provide experimental information that can be used for this purpose. The data from such experiments contain many false positives and false negatives, but can be processed using computational methods to provide reliable information about protein-protein relationships and protein function. An outstanding and important goal is to predict detailed functional annotation for all uncharacterized proteins that is reliable enough to effectively guide experiments. RESULTS: We present AVID, a computational method that uses a multi-stage learning framework to integrate experimental results with sequence information, generating networks reflecting functional similarities among proteins. We illustrate use of the networks by making predictions of detailed Gene Ontology (GO) annotations in three categories: molecular function, biological process, and cellular component. Applied to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, AVID provides 37,451 pair-wise functional linkages between 4,191 proteins. These relationships are ~65–78% accurate, as assessed by cross-validation testing. Assignments of highly detailed functional descriptors to proteins, based on the networks, are estimated to be ~67% accurate for GO categories describing molecular function and cellular component and ~52% accurate for terms describing biological process. The predictions cover 1,490 proteins with no previous annotation in GO and also assign more detailed functions to many proteins annotated only with less descriptive terms. Predictions made by AVID are largely distinct from those made by other methods. Out of 37,451 predicted pair-wise relationships, the greatest number shared in common with another method is 3,413. CONCLUSION: AVID provides three networks reflecting functional associations among proteins. We use these networks to generate new, highly detailed functional predictions for roughly half of the yeast proteome that are reliable enough to drive targeted experimental investigations. The predictions suggest many specific, testable hypotheses. All of the data are available as downloadable files as well as through an interactive website at . Thus, AVID will be a valuable resource for experimental biologists

Postsynthetic bromination of UiO-66 analogues:altering linker flexibility and mechanical compliance

A new member of the UiO-66 series of zirconium metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is reported, and the postsynthetic bromination of its integral alkene moeities in a single-crystal to single-crystal manner is fully characterised. Nanoindentation is used to show bromination of unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds in it and an analogous Zr MOF leads to more compliant materials with lower elastic moduli

Design of a Functionalized Metal-Organic Framework System for Enhanced Targeted Delivery to Mitochondria.

Mitochondria play a key role in oncogenesis and constitute one of the most important targets for cancer treatments. Although the most effective way to deliver drugs to mitochondria is by covalently linking them to a lipophilic cation, the in vivo delivery of free drugs still constitutes a critical bottleneck. Herein, we report the design of a mitochondria-targeted metal-organic framework (MOF) that greatly increases the efficacy of a model cancer drug, reducing the required dose to less than 1% compared to the free drug and ca. 10% compared to the nontargeted MOF. The performance of the system is evaluated using a holistic approach ranging from microscopy to transcriptomics. Super-resolution microscopy of MCF-7 cells treated with the targeted MOF system reveals important mitochondrial morphology changes that are clearly associated with cell death as soon as 30 min after incubation. Whole transcriptome analysis of cells indicates widespread changes in gene expression when treated with the MOF system, specifically in biological processes that have a profound effect on cell physiology and that are related to cell death. We show how targeting MOFs toward mitochondria represents a valuable strategy for the development of new drug delivery systems

Modulated Self-Assembly of an Interpenetrated MIL-53 Sc Metal-Organic Framework with Excellent Volumetric H2 Storage and Working Capacity

Experimental data to accompany the manuscrip

An EPR/ENDOR and Computational Study of Outer Sphere Interactions in Copper Complexes of Phenolic Oximes

Copper complexes of the phenolic oxime family of ligands (3-X-salicylaldoximes) are used extensively as metal solvent extractants. Incorporation of electronegative substituents in the 3-position, ortho to the phenol group, can be used to buttress the interligand H-bonding, leading to an enhancement in extractant strength. However, investigation of the relevant H-bonding in these complexes can be exceedingly difficult. Here, we have combined EPR, ENDOR, DFT, and X-ray crystallography to study this effect. Analysis of the 1H ENDOR data revealed a variation in the Cu···H16 (oxime proton) distance from 2.92 Å for the unsubstituted complex [Cu(L2)2] to 3.65 Å for the X = CH2N(C6H13)2 substituted complex [Cu(L3)2]. DFT calculations showed that this variation is caused by changes to the length and strength of the H-bond between the oximic hydrogen and the phenolate oxygen. Noticeable changes to the Cu···H15 (azomethine proton) distances and the Cu···N bonding parameters were also observed in the two complexes, as revealed through the NA and NQ ENDOR data. Distortions in the structure of the complex and variations in the oximic proton to phenolate oxygen H-bond strength caused by the substituent (X) were confirmed by DFT and X-ray crystallography. DFT directly evidenced the importance of the interaction between H16 and the amine nitrogen of CH2N(C6H13)2 in the buttressed complex and indicated that the high strength of this interaction may not necessarily lead to an enhancement of copper extraction, as it can impose an unfavorable geometry in the inner coordination sphere of the complex. Therefore, ENDOR, DFT, and X-ray structural data all indicate that the aminomethyl substituent (X) ortho to the phenolic oxygen atom provides a particularly strong buttressing of interligand H-bonding in these copper complexes and that these outer sphere interactions can significantly influence structure and stability

Post-Synthetic Modification of a Metal-Organic Framework Glass.

Melt-quenched metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses have gained significant interest as the first new category of glass reported in 50 years. In this work, an amine-functionalized zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF), denoted ZIF-UC-6, was prepared and demonstrated to undergo both melting and glass formation. The presence of an amine group resulted in a lower melting temperature compared to other ZIFs, while also allowing material properties to be tuned by post-synthetic modification (PSM). As a prototypical example, the ZIF glass surface was functionalized with octyl isocyanate, changing its behavior from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. PSM therefore provides a promising strategy for tuning the surface properties of MOF glasses

Modulated self-assembly of an interpenetrated MIL-53 Sc metal-organic framework with excellent volumetric H2 storage and working capacity

No abstract available