Controlled Delivery of Levothyroxine using a Drug carrier Cu(II) metal-organic framework

Populations suffer from chronic disorders especially hypothyroidism. To decrease thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and medicate hypothyroidism in patients were diagnosed with thyroid cancer and nodular thyroid disease, levothyroxine is utilized clinically.  Applications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in various fields of medicine have attracted much attention. Loading levothyroxine onto the nanostructured Cu(II)-MOFs, Cu(II)-BTC, as well as subsequent drug release behavior were studied. Nanostructured Cu(II)-BTC was used to load and release the drug levothyroxine. The obtained results confirmed that besides effects regarding the stability and release of the levothyroxine in phosphate buffer solution (pH=7.4, 10 mM), surface characteristics would affect compounds affinity towards particles. The morphology investigation of the surface roughness was characterized by SEM and AFM. Drug loading amount was determined by Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The drug release profiles are characterized by UV spectrophotometry in phosphate buffer solution (PBS), which confirms that they are released in their active form. The release of levothyroxine was studied by detecting in 7 days. The concentration of levothyroxine increased; it was achieved to normal limitation (12.5 μg mL-1). Based on the results, 10 μM concentration of levothyroxine was determined within 24 h as IC50 concentration in WJMSCs. A comparison of levothyroxine and loading levothyroxine showed that the amount of levothyroxine cytotoxicity was significantly higher than loading levothyroxine (P <0.05). Also, there were significant morphological changes such as shrinkage in treated cells with levothyroxine than loading levothyroxine.