Anchoring Drugs to a Zinc(II) Coordination Polymer Network: Exploiting Structural Rationale toward the Design of Metallogels for Drug-Delivery Applications

A new series of coordination polymers (CPs) were synthesized and crystallographically characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction with the aim of developing drug-delivery systems via metallogel formation. Structural rationale was employed to design such coordination-polymer-based metallogels. As many as nine CPs were obtained by reacting two bis(pyridyl)urea ligands, namely, 1,3-dipyridin-3-ylurea (3U) and 1,3-dipyridin-4-ylurea (4U), and the sodium salt of various nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, namely, ibuprofen (IBU), naproxen (NAP), fenoprofen (FEN), diclofenac (DIC), meclofenamic acid (MEC), mefenamic acid (MEF), and Zn(NO3)2. All of the CPs displayed 1D polymeric chains that were self-assembled through various hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the urea N–H and carboxylate O atoms and, in a few cases, lattice-occluded water molecules. The reacting components of the CPs produced five metallogels in dimethyl sulfoxide/water. The gels were characterized by rheology and transmission electron microscopy. Three selected metallogelators, namely, 3UMEFg, 3UNAPg, and 3UMECg, showed in vitro anticancer, cell imaging, and multidrug delivery for antibacterial applications, respectively. The shear-thinning properties of 3UMECg (rheoreversibility and injectability) make it a potential candidate for plausible topical application.