In vivo biodistribution of kinetically stable Pt(2)L(4) nanospheres that show anti-cancer activity

There is an increasing interest in the application of metal–organic cages (MOCs) in a biomedicinal context, as they can offer non-classical distribution in organisms compared to molecular substrates, while revealing novel cytotoxicity mechanisms. Unfortunately, many MOCs are not sufficiently stable under in vivo conditions, making it difficult to study their structure–activity relationships in living cells. As such, it is currently unclear whether MOC cytotoxicity stems from supramolecular features or their decomposition products. Herein, we describe the toxicity and photophysical properties of highly-stable rhodamine functionalized platinum-based Pt(2)L(4) nanospheres as well as their building blocks under in vitro and in vivo conditions. We show that in both zebrafish and human cancer cell lines, the Pt(2)L(4) nanospheres demonstrate reduced cytotoxicity and altered biodistribution within the body of zebrafish embryos compared to the building blocks. We anticipate that the composition-dependent biodistribution of Pt(2)L(4) spheres together with their cytotoxic and photophysical properties provides the fundament for MOC application in cancer therapy.