Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been extensively used as drug delivery platforms because of their considerable textural properties and physiochemical tunability. However, most medicinal treatments often administer multiple therapeutic pharmaceuticals simultaneously and combined drug delivery over a single MOF carrier has not been extensively developed. As such, in this study we implemented Mg-MOF-74, which is known to have rapid pharmacokinetic properties, for the combined delivery of ibuprofen and curcumin to demonstrate the proof-of-concept for dual-drug delivery over this previously unexplored MOF. To this end, 30 wt % total drug loading of two drugs was impregnated at various ratios (25:5 ibuprofen-curcumin, 20:5 ibuprofen-curcumin, 15:15 ibuprofen-curcumin, 10:20 ibuprofen-curcumin, and 5:25 ibuprofen-curcumin), and the drug delivery performance of the materials was assessed from 0 to 24 h in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The experiments revealed that all five ratios of ibuprofen-curcumin loadings can effectively deliver both compounds; however, elevating the curcumin loading beyond 10 wt % decreases the drug loading efficiency for ibuprofen and can also inhibit ibuprofen release. Nevertheless, because Mg-MOF-74 was able to successfully deliver both compounds, this study serves as a promising proof-of-concept for dual-drug delivery from a single MOF carrier. In this regard, the work demonstrated herein expands the use of MOFs for drug delivery applications and can be used to supplement drug administration via orally ingested tablets.
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