5-Fluorouracil Trapping in a Porous Ba(II)-organic Framework: Drug Delivery and Anti-thyroid Cancer Activity Evaluation

Solvothermal treatment of Ba(NO3)2 with the rigid tricarboxylic acid linker 4,4′,4″-s-triazine-2,4,6-triyltribenzoic acid (H3TATB) in a mixture of H2O and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) produces a new three-dimensional porous metal-organic framework having the chemical formula of [Ba(HTATB)-(H2O)2](DMF)4 (I). The complex I has been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction (CIF file CCDC no. 1898532). In light of its large inner spaces as well as widely distributed open metal sites, the guest-free I (Ia) has been used as a crystalline vessel for trapping the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which has been investigated both experimentally and computationally. Furthermore, MTT assay was employed to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of the carrier 5-FU loaded Ia against the human thyroid cancer cell lines.