Controlled Delivery of Nitric Oxide Using Porous Organic Cages

In
recent years, gas therapy has demonstrated significant potential
in the biomedical field. However, existing gas delivery materials
often suffer from a limited loading capacity and potential biotoxicity.
Porous organic cages (POCs), an emerging subclass of porous materials,
offer distinct advantages for gas adsorption and separation due to
their intrinsic porosity, solubility, and structural tunability. Herein,
we present the first experimental investigation of POCs for nitric
oxide (NO) delivery. The tunable molecular design of POCs enables
dual adsorption capabilities mechanisms: physisorption and chemisorption
via the incorporation of NO-reactive moieties. Through a combination
of experimental characterizations and density functional theory calculations,
we demonstrated that NO reacts with amine-functionalized POCs to form
NONOates, which enables controlled NO release under physiological
conditions. High resolution mass spectroscopy provided direct evidence
for the process of the formation of NONOates, facilitated by the well-defined
and discrete molecular structure of POCs. This work establishes POCs
as a promising platform for NO delivery and highlights their broader
potential for biomedical applications beyond gas therapy.