Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), built from inorganic units linked by organic polycomplexant ligands, demonstrate exceptional porosity and precisely defined structures that are easily adjustable in composition and topology. These porous crystalline hybrid materials hold promise for a broad spectrum of applications including biomedicine, sensing, and catalysis. However, their translation into clinical and industrial settings has been hindered by concerns regarding stability and toxicity. In response, recent focus has shifted towards MOF-polymer composites, capitalizing on the tunable mechanical and chemical properties of polymers in conjunction with the high porosity and crystallinity of MOFs. Within this context, polyMOFs emerge as promising materials consisting of polymers containing polycomplexant ligands, co-ligands, and metal ions and offering a vast array of novel materials with properties yet to be fully explored. Even though this field is still in its infancy (20 vs over >90000 reported MOFs), it is now booming due to very broad range of new materials with interesting properties to be discovered.
Regarding their applications, all reported polyMOFs are exclusively in the exploratory phase, with 3 reports dealing with their potential application in DDS, proton conductivity and gas separation. In particular, antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide, becoming imperative to find more efficient novel drugs and/or to improve the current antimicrobial molecules. Drug delivery systems (DDS) appear as a simple and versatile alternative able to solve many of the associated drug drawbacks (e.g. side effects, low solubility, instability, poor bioavailability) while effectively delivering the drugs in the infected area. Thus, PolyMOFs appear as a promising alternative to traditional DDS (lipidic and purely polymeric nanoparticles), which have not fully addressed the challenges of microbial resistance.
In this frame, the objective of BioPolyMOF is to design a robust synthetic strategy for synthesizing novel polyMOFs as drug delivery systems to combat microbial infections. In this regard, the selection of the building blocks is crucial. Therefore, the rational design of these materials entails a metal center with antimicrobial activity, an active co-ligand and a polymer with complexing group.
