Comparison of cyclodextrins and urea as hosts for inclusion of drugs

Cyclodextrin: A prospective nanocarrier for the delivery of antibacterial agents against bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics

Supramolecular chemistry introduces us to the macrocyclic host cyclodextrin, which has a hydrophobic cavity. The hydrophobic cavity has a higher affinity for hydrophobic guest molecules and forms host-guest complexation with non-covalent interaction. Three significant cyclodextrin kinds are α-cyclodextrin, β-cyclodextrin, and γ-cyclodextrin. The most often utilized is β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). An effective weapon against bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics is cyclodextrin. Several different kinds of cyclodextrin nanocarriers (β-CD, HP-β-CD, Meth-β-CD, cationic CD, sugar-grafted CD) are utilized to enhance the solubility, stability, dissolution, absorption, bioavailability, and permeability of the antibiotics. Cyclodextrin also improves the effectiveness of antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides, metallic nanoparticles, and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Again, cyclodextrin nanocarriers offer slow-release properties for sustained-release formulations where steady-state plasma antibiotic concentration is needed for an extended time. A novel strategy to combat bacterial resistance is a stimulus (pH, ROS)-responsive antibiotics released from cyclodextrin carrier. Once again, cyclodextrin traps autoinducer (AI), a crucial part of bacterial quorum sensing, and reduces virulence factors, including biofilm formation. Cyclodextrin helps to minimize MIC in particular bacterial strains, keep antibiotic concentrations above MIC in the infection site and minimize the possibility of antibiotic and biofilm resistance. Sessile bacteria trapped in biofilms are more resistant to antibiotic therapy than bacteria in a planktonic form. Cyclodextrin also involves delivering antibiotics to biofilm and resistant bacteria to combat bacterial resistance.

Drug complexes: Perspective from Academic Research and Pharmaceutical Market

Despite numerous research efforts, drug delivery through the oral route remains a major challenge to formulation scientists. The oral delivery of drugs poses a significant challenge because more than 40% of new chemical entities are practically insoluble in water. Low aqueous solubility is the main problem encountered during the formulation development of new actives and for generic development. A complexation approach has been widely investigated to address this issue, which subsequently improves the bioavailability of these drugs. This review discusses the various types of complexes such as metal complex (drug-metal ion), organic molecules (drug-caffeine or drug-hydrophilic polymer), inclusion complex (drug-cyclodextrin), and pharmacosomes (drug-phospholipids) that improves the aqueous solubility, dissolution, and permeability of the drug along with the numerous case studies reported in the literature. Besides improving solubility, drug-complexation provides versatile functions like improving stability, reducing the toxicity of drugs, increasing or decreasing the dissolution rate, and enhancing bioavailability and biodistribution. Apart, various methods to predict the stoichiometric ratio of reactants and the stability of the developed complex are discussed.

Dynamic optical activity induction in the N-alkyl-N'-trityl ureas and thioureas

Considered to be rigid, the urea and thiourea functionalities, often used in material chemistry and in asymmetric organocatalysis, are able to transmit information regarding 3D structure from a permanently chiral inducer part to a dynamically chiral (reporter) part of the molecule. Despite a considerable distance between the inducer and the reporter parts of the molecule, the chirality transfer phenomenon has been demonstrated for a series of secondary N-alkyl-N'-trityl ureas and thioureas. The induction of helicity in a stereodynamic trityl propeller is revealed by rising non-zero Cotton effects in the area of trityl absorption. The information regarding the 3D structure of the inducer is transferred to the reporter part of the system through a set of weak but complementary electrostatic interactions. The presence of two supramolecular motifs in the same molecule, characterized by opposite properties, significantly affected the molecular solid state structure of the thioureas and their abilities to assemble. In the crystalline phase, the model, a chiral N-tert-butyl-thiourea derivative that retains the extended Z,Z conformation of the linker, is prone to form a supramolecular network typical of secondary ureas and thioureas. In contrast, the presence of the hydrophobic trityl group suppresses the thioamide NHS[double bond, length as m-dash]C hydrogen bonds. Therefore, trityl acts as a supramolecular protecting group for thioamide functionality, hampering the formation of hydrogen bonded networks in the solid state.