Host –guest interactions involving platinum anticancer agents. DNA binding and cytotoxicity of a β-cyclodextrin-adamantane-Pt(IV) complex

Oxidized polysaccharides for anticancer-drug delivery: What is the role of structure?

Study provides an in-depth analysis of the structure-function relationship of polysaccharide anticancer drug carriers and points out benefits and potential drawbacks of differences in polysaccharide glycosidic bonding, branching and drug binding mode of the carriers. Cellulose, dextrin, dextran and hyaluronic acid have been regioselectively oxidized to respective dicarboxylated derivatives, allowing them to directly conjugate cisplatin, while preserving their major structural features intact. The structure of source polysaccharide has crucial impact on conjugation effectiveness, carrier capacity, drug release rates, in vitro cytotoxicity and cellular uptake. For example, while branched structure of dextrin-based carrier partially counter the undesirable initial burst release, it also attenuates the cellular uptake and the cytotoxicity of carried drug. Linear polysaccharides containing β-(1→4) glycosidic bonds and oxidized at C2 and C3 (cellulose and hyaluronate) have the best overall combination of structural features for improved drug delivery applications including potentiation of the cisplatin efficacy towards malignances.

Cyclodextrin-based delivery systems for cancer treatment

Cyclodextrins, one of safe excipients, are able to form host-guest complexes with fitted molecules given the unique nature imparted by their structure in result of a number of pharmaceutical applications. On the other hand, targeted or responsive materials are appealing therapeutic platforms for the development of next-generation precision medications. Meanwhile, cyclodextrin-based polymers or assemblies can condense DNA and RNA in result to be used as genetic therapeutic agents. Armed with a better understanding of various pharmaceutical mechanisms, especially for cancer treatment, researchers have made lots of works about cyclodextrin-based drug delivery systems in materials chemistry and pharmaceutical science. This Review highlights recent advances in cyclodextrin-based delivery systems for cancer treatment capable of targeting or responding to the physiological environment. Key design principles, challenges and future directions, including clinical translation, of cyclodextrin-based delivery systems are also discussed.

Stimuli-Responsive Therapeutic Metallodrugs

The success of platinum-based anticancer agents has motivated the exploration of novel metal-based drugs for several decades, whereas problems such as drug-resistance and systemic toxicity hampered their clinical applications and efficacy. Stimuli-responsiveness of some metal complexes offers a good opportunity for designing site-specific prodrugs to maximize the therapeutic efficacy and minimize the side effect of metallodrugs. This review presents a comprehensive and up-to-date overview on the therapeutic stimuli-responsive metallodrugs that have appeared in the past two decades, where stimuli such as redox, pH, enzyme, light, temperature, and so forth were involved. The compounds are classified into three major categories based on the nature of stimuli, that is, endo-stimuli-responsive metallodrugs, exo-stimuli-responsive metallodrugs, and dual-stimuli-responsive metallodrugs. Representative examples of each type are discussed in terms of structure, response mechanism, and potential medical applications. In the end, future opportunities and challenges in this field are tentatively proposed. With diverse metal complexes being introduced, the foci of this review are pointed to platinum and ruthenium complexes.

DNA–ligand interactions gained and lost: light-induced ligand redistribution in a supramolecular cascade

Controlled DNA binding: a photoresponsive ligand is made to migrate from cyclodextrin to double-stranded DNA upon irradiation and is eventually extracted from the nucleic acid by cucurbituril.

Cyclodextrin capped gold nanoparticles as a delivery vehicle for a prodrug of cisplatin

In this work, we explore the use of a quick coupling mechanism for "arming" a cyclodextrin coated gold nanoparticle (AuNP) delivery vehicle, 2, with an adamantane-oxoplatin conjugate that is a prodrug of cisplatin, 3, to produce a cytotoxic nanodrug, 4. The two-part arming system, which utilizes the well-known guest-host interaction between β-cyclodextrin and adamantane, may be useful for rapidly constituting polyfunctional nanodrugs prior to their application in chemotherapy. The 4.7 ± 1.1 nm delivery vehicle, 2, coated with per-6-thio-β-cyclodextrin (βSCD), was characterized using transmission electron microscopy and absorption spectroscopy, and the density of surface-attached βSCD molecules, ∼210 βSCD/AuNP, was determined using thermogravimetric analysis. Because (13)C NMR spectra of βSCD used in the study exhibited disulfide linkages and the observed surface density on the AuNP exceeded that possible for a close-packed mono layer, a fraction of the surface-attached βSCD molecules on the particle were oligomerized through disulfide linkages. Determination of the binding constant, K, for the 3-βCD interaction using (1)H NMR chemical shifts was complicated by the self-association of 3 to form a dimer through its conjugated adamantane residue. With a dimerization constant of K2 = 26.7 M(-1), the value of K for the 3-βCD interaction (1:1 stoichiometry) is 400-800 M(-1), which is lower than the value, K = 1.4 × 10(3) M(-1), measured for the 2-3 interaction using ICP-MS. Optical microscopy showed that when neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells are treated with the nanodrug, 4 (2+3), clusters of gold nanoparticles are observed in the nuclear regions of living cells within 24 h after exposure, but, at later times when most cells are dying or dead, clustering is no longer observed. Treating the cells with 4 for 72 h gave percent inhibitions that are lower than that of cisplatin, suggesting that the Pt(IV) ions in 4 may be incompletely reduced to cytotoxic Pt(II) species in the cell.