Supramolecular metal-based nanoparticles for drug delivery and cancer therapy

Although conventional cancer therapies such as chemo-therapy and radiotherapy prevail in clinic, they tend to have narrow therapeutic windows. Many chemotherapies have un -favorable pharmacokinetics while radiotherapy incurs radio-toxicity to normal tissues surrounding tumors. The chemical tunability of supramolecular metal-based nanoparticles (SMNPs) enables the incorporation of various therapeutics, including hydrophilic and hydrophobic chemotherapeutic drugs, photosensitizers, radiosensitizers, and biological ther-apeutics for more effective delivery to tumors. In this mini-review, we highlight recent advances in SMNPs, namely nanoscale coordination polymers and nanoscale metal?organic frameworks, for drug delivery and cancer therapy. We particularly focus on innovative uses of metal clusters, ligands, pores, and surface modifications to load various therapeutics into SMNPs and critical evaluations of the anticancer efficacies of SMNPs.