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Despite the critical role actinide decorporation agents play in the emergency treatment of people in nuclear accidents and other scenarios that may cause internal contamination of actinides, new ligands have seldom been reported in recent decades because the current inventory has been limited to only a handful of functional groups. Therefore, new functional groups are always being urgently sought for the introduction of advanced actinide decorporation agents. Herein, a tropolone derivative, 2-hydroxy-6-(propan-2-yl)cyclohepta-2,4,6-trien-1-one (Hinokitiol or Hino), is proposed to be a promising candidate for this purpose by virtue of its well-demonstrated high membrane permeability and high affinity for metal ions. The coordination stoichiometry of Hino with uranyl is demonstrated to be 3:1 both in an aqueous solution (pH 7.4) and in the solid state. The results of a liquid–liquid extraction experiment further show that Hino exhibits strong chelating ability and selectivity toward uranyl over biological essential metal ions (i.e., Mn2+, Zn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+) with an extraction efficiency of >90.0%. The in vivo uranyl removal efficacies of Hino in kidneys and bone of mice are demonstrated to be 67.0% and 32.3%, respectively. On the basis of the observations described above, it is highly possible that further modification of Hino will lead to a large family of multidentate agents with enhanced uranyl decorporation ability.

The limited availability of effective agents for removing actinides from the lungs significantly restricts the effectiveness of medical treatments for nuclear emergencies. Inhalation is the primary route of internal contamination in 44.3% of actinide‐related accidents, leading to the accumulation of radionuclides in the lungs and resulting in infections and potential tumor formation (tumorigenesis). This study focuses on the synthesis of a nanometal−organic framework (nMOF) material called ZIF‐71‐COOH, which is achieved by post‐synthetic carboxyl functionalization of ZIF‐71. The material demonstrates high and selective adsorption of uranyl, while also exhibiting increased particle size (≈2100 nm) when it aggregates in the blood, enabling passive targeting of the lungs through mechanical filtration. This unique property facilitates the rapid enrichment and selective recognition of uranyl, making nano ZIF‐71‐COOH highly effective in removing uranyl from the lungs. The findings of this study highlight the potential of self‐aggregated nMOFs as a promising drug delivery system for targeted uranium decorporation in the lungs. The rapid enrichment of ZIF‐71‐COOH in lungs facilitated by its responsive aggregation in vivo and its selective recognition of uranyl together enable high uranyl removal efficacy from the lungs, highlighting the potential of self‐aggregated nMOFs as a promising drug delivery system for lung targeted uranium decorporation.

Metal–Organic Frameworks The rapid enrichment of ZIF‐71‐COOH in lungs facilitated by its responsive aggregation in vivo and its selective recognition of uranyl together enable high uranyl removal efficacy from the lungs, highlighting the potential of self‐aggregating a nanometal‐organic frameworks as a promising drug delivery system for lung targeted uranium decorporation, which is a crucial component in nuclear emergency medical treatment. More details can be found in article 2300510by Juan Diwu and co‐workers.

Internal contamination of actinides has led to significant health hazards to the public and workers in the context of nuclear power plant accidents, uranium ore mining, and reprocessing of the used fuel. An effective sequestering agent that is able to remove accidentally incorporated actinides in vivowith low toxicity is always in urgent need. The molecular decorporation ligands have been the most widely researched agents for the past few decades, while preliminary studies of functionalized nanoparticles have shown their clear advantages in metal binding selectivity, toxicity, and oxidative stress alleviation. Herein, the state-of-the-art of those two types of decorporation agents is presented with special attention being paid on the correlation between the solution and solid-state chemistry of those agents with actinides and the corresponding decorporation efficacies.