Yingpeng Li,1 Xiuyan Li,2 Qingxia Guan,2 Chunjing Zhang,2 Ting Xu,2 Yujing Dong,2 Xinyu Bai,2 Weiping Zhang3 1College of Pharmacy, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 2College of Pharmacy, Heilongjiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Harbin, People's Republic of China; 3Pope John XXIII High School, Everett, MA, USA Background: Enhancing drug delivery is an ongoing endeavor in pharmaceutics, especially when the efficacy of chemotherapy for cancer is

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... In this study, we prepared and evaluated nanosized HKUST-1 (nanoHKUST-1), nanosized metal-organic drug delivery framework, loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) for potential use in cancer treatment.Materials and methods: NanoHKUST-1 was prepared by reacting copper (II) acetate [Cu(OAc)2] and benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (H3BTC) with benzoic acid (C6H5COOH) at room temperature (23.7°C±2.4°C). A central composite design was used to optimize 5-FU-loaded nanoHKUST-1. Contact time, ethanol concentration, and 5-FU:material ratios were the independent variables, and the entrapment efficiency of 5-FU was the response parameter measured. Powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen adsorption were used to determine the morphology of nanoHKUST-1. In addition, 5-FU release studies were conducted, and the in vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated.Results: Entrapment efficiency and drug loading were 9.96% and 40.22%, respectively, while the small-angle X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed a regular porous structure. The SEM and TEM images of the nanoHKUST-1 confirmed the presence of round particles (diameter: approximately 100 nm) and regular polygon arrays of mesoporous channels of approximately 2–5 nm. The half-maximal lethal concentration (LC50) of the 5-FU-loaded nanoHKUST-1 was approximately 10 µg/mL.Conclusion: The results indicated that nanoHKUST-1 is a potential vector worth developing as a cancer chemotherapeutic drug delivery system. Keywords: 5-fluorouracil [...]