# Recent advances of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for drug delivery, cancer imaging and theranostics

## TL;DR

This review explores how metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be used for drug delivery, cancer imaging, and combined therapy-imaging (theranostics) in nanomedicine.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of recent synthetic strategies and applications of MOFs in cancer theranostics.

## Key findings

- MOFs can be tailored to encapsulate various therapeutic agents, including small molecules and biomacromolecules.
- Surface modification and synthetic strategies enable MOFs to have imaging and phototherapeutic functions.
- The paper identifies key limitations and challenges in translating MOFs into clinical applications.

## Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a unique class of porous materials constructed from metal-containing nodes, known as secondary building units (SBUs) and organic ligands. Their highly tunable structures enable the encapsulation of a broad range of therapeutic agents, spanning small-molecule chemotherapeutics to biomacromolecules such as proteins, DNA, and RNA. By rational selection of metal ions and organic linkers, diverse functionalities, including molecular imaging and phototherapeutic capabilities, can be included into MOFs, rendering them promising nanoscale platforms of nanomedicines. In this review, we summarize recent advances of MOFs for drug delivery, cancer imaging and theranostics. We discuss the progress in regulating the morphology and functions of MOFs through diverse synthetic strategies and surface modification approaches. We further systematically analyzed and discussed MOFs in the applications of drug delivery, molecular imaging, and cancer theranostics, with recent strategies. Finally, key limitations associated with the clinical translation of MOFs are discussed, along with the corresponding bottlenecks, future challenges, and emerging opportunities.