Polysaccharide-based supramolecular drug delivery systems mediated via host-guest interactions of cucurbiturils

With excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, natural polysaccharides and their derivatives have exhibited great potential in constructing drug delivery vehicles for tissue engineering and therapeutics. Cucurbit[n]uril (CB[n])-mediated reversible crosslinking of polysaccharides possess intrinsic stimuli responsiveness towards competitive guests and have been extensively investigated to fabricate various particles and hydrogels for multiple stimuli-responsive drug release by incorporation with other stimuli including photo, redox, and enzyme. Through host-guest interactions between CB[6] and aliphatic diamines, functional tags covalently connected with CB[6] can be readily anchored into polysaccharide based hydrogels, realizing multiple functionalization. The rheological property and drug release profile of polysaccharide-based supramolecular hydrogels can be facilely tuned through CB[8]-mediated dynamic homo or hetero crosslinking of polysaccharides and/or other polymers. In this review, we introduce and summarize recent progress regarding polysaccharide-based supramolecular drug delivery systems mediated via host-guest interactions of CB[6] and CB[8], covering both bulk hydrogels and particular systems. At the end, possible utilization of CB[7]-based host-guest interactions in constructing polysaccharide-based drug delivery systems and future perspectives of this research direction are also discussed. (C) 2020 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.