Mechanochemical Assembly of Nalidixic Acid Bioinspired Metal–Organic Compounds and Complexes toward Improved Solubility

Abstract

Nalidixic acid is an antibiotic from the quinolones family whose bioavailability is limited due to its low solubility. The development of complexes and bioinspired metal–organic frameworks has been explored as a way to achieve controlled drug delivery and release, and we demonstrate that they can also be used to tune drugs’ physicochemical properties, such as solubility. Herein we disclose a series of complexes and frameworks of nalidixic acid and Zn. One of these frameworks duplicates the solubility of nalidixic acid, and it is stable on the shelf and to 77% room humidity. The incorporation of a second ligand into the frameworks is also presented, showing the possibility to develop extended networks with further potential applications.