5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is currently one of the most effective chemotherapy agents against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); however, it is limited by poor pharmacokinetics, multidrug resistance by cancer cells, and potential toxicity to healthy tissues. The pH-responsive zeolite imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) can enhance the efficacy of 5-FU by degrading and releasing the drug into the acidic tumor microenvironment, which lead to better cancer cell uptake and less systemic toxicity without diminishing the pharmacological effect of 5-FU. Through a recent systematic review, we discovered that despite the promising drug delivery properties of ZIFs, current research solely focuses on carcinomas and there is no literature on OSCC. We believe it would be valuable to extend the nanocarrier's application to OSCC through wet-lab and in vivo experiments. For our project, we examined the in vitro drug release profile of 5-fluorouracil incorporated ZIF-8, then progressed to cytotoxicity assays with SCC7 cell lines.

Interested undergraduates should contact Jessica Hao at haoje@upenn.edu.