Recent Advances in Antitumor Nanomedicine Based on Covalent Organic Frameworks

Fan Xu,1,2,* Ruoyu Wang,3,* Zhenyang Cheng,1,2,* Zhanxia Zhang,3 Jianhui Tian1,2 1Institute of Oncology, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200071, People’s Republic of China; 2Clinical Oncology Center, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200071, People’s Republic of China; 3Cancer Institute, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200032, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zhanxia Zhang, Email [email protected] Jianhui Tian, Email [email protected]: Cancer remains one of the leading threats to human health today. With the rapid advancement of nanotechnology, the integration of nanomaterials with therapeutic strategies has shown great potential in addressing the limitations of conventional cancer treatments. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are novel crystalline porous polymers with well-defined backbones and nanopores, mainly composed of light elements (H, B, C, N, and O) linked by dynamic covalent bonds. Owing to their tunable morphology, adjustable porosity, intelligent responsive release, and good biocompatibility, COFs have been extensively explored for applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment. This review summarizes recent progress in the synthesis of COFs, their distinctions from other traditional nanomaterials, their tumor microenvironment-responsive release capabilities, and highlights the development of multifunctional COF-based nanoplatforms for cancer imaging and treatment. Finally, the prospects and challenges of COF-based nanoplatforms in tumor therapeutics are discussed, aiming to provide new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for subsequent tumor prevention and treatment.Keywords: covalent organic frameworks, cancer, synthesis, tumor microenvironment, drug delivery, response to stimulation, diagnosis and treatment