Coercing Bisphosphonates to Kill Cancer Cells with Nano-scale Coordination Polymers (2012)

Undergraduates: Shunzhi Wang, Demin Liu, Stephanie A. Kramer, Rachel C. Huxford, Joseph Della Rocca

Faculty Advisor: Wenbin Lin
Department: Chemistry

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Bisphosphonates do not exhibit desirable pharmacokinetics to function as effective cancer therapeutics, but when formulated within crystalline nanoscale coordination polymers (NCPs), they become potent anticancer agents with sub-?M IC50 values. The NCPs carry unprecedentedly high drug loadings (up to 75.7 wt. %) of bisphosphonates. Coating these NCPs with single lipid bilayers (SLBs) provides an effective way to control the drug release kinetics, and functionalization of lipid-coated NCPs with anisamide (AA), a targeting ligand for ? receptors, further enhances cytotoxicity against human lung and pancreatic cancer cells.