LAUSR

Abstract Solvothermal reaction of Zn(NO3) · 6H2O with the tripodal ligand 1,3,5-tris(4-carboxyphenyl)benzene (H3BTB) afforded a highly porous metal-organic framework (MOF) {[Zn3(BTB)2(H2O)2] · 7DMF}n (1). The resulting activated 1a exhibits BET surface areas of 1021 m2 g−1 with a pore size distribution around 11.8 Å, which was further applied in the cyanosilylation of aldehydes under solvent-free conditions. The experimental results show that, using 1a as the catalyst, both aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes were efficiently transformed to cyanohydrin trimethylsilyl ether. Meanwhile, significant size selectivity and electronic effects have also been observed. Then, we evaluated the anticancer activity of the synthesized compound 1a on six different kinds of cancer cell lines, including HeLa, CHO, HepG2, MG-63, MAD-MB-435, and BEAS-2B. CCK-8 results indicated 1a showed excellent inhibitory effect on cell proliferation, especially on the MG-63 human osteogenic sarcoma cells. Next, a transwell assay was performed to detect the migration and invasion activity of MG-63 cells after compound 1a treatment. Graphical Abstract