Gold/platinum nanorods/temozolomide-UiO-66-NH metal-organic frameworks incorporated to chitosan-grafted polycaprolactone/polycaprolactone core-shell nanofibers for glioblastoma treatment during chemo-photothermal therapy.

The use of biocompatible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and electrospun nanofibrous implants shows promise in preventing the recurrence of postsurgical glioblastoma. In this study, temozolomide (TMZ) and platinum‑gold nanorods (PtAu NRs) were encapsulated into the UiO-66-NH MOFs. These were then incorporated into the chitosan-grafted polycaprolactone (PCL) (core)/PCL (shell) nanofibers coated with PtAu NRs for extended release of TMZ during chemo-photothermal therapy against glioblastoma cells. The drug encapsulation efficiency, TMZ release, and in vitro cell viability were investigated for the MOFs, simple nanofibers, core-shell nanofibers, and MOFs-nanofibers. The extended release of TMZ occurred over 44 and 36 days from the core-shell nanofibers coated with PtAu NRs under NIR irradiation at pH values of 7.4 and 5, respectively. The maximum killing of U87 glioblastoma cells was 80.2 % using TMZ-Pt-Au-MOF-core-shell nanofibers coated with PtAu under NIR irradiation. The relative tumor size for the mice bearing glioblastoma and treated with pure core-shell nanofibers, TMZ-Pt-Au-MOF, and TMZ-Pt-Au-MOF-core-shell nanofibers coated with PtAu without NIR irradiation and with NIR irradiation was 4.12, 2.12, 1.65, 0.86, and 0.48, respectively, after 30 days. The synthesized MOF-core-shell nanofibers-Pt-Au NRs implantable device shows potential as a new approach for postsurgical glioblastoma treatment during chemo-photothermal therapy.