Interactions between cyclodextrins and cellular components: Towards greener medical applications?

Leclercq, Loïc

Cyclodextrins (CDs) were discovered and identified over a century ago [1] [2] [3] . Between 1911 and 1935, Pringsheim and co-workers demonstrated the ability of CDs to form complexes with many organic molecules [4, 5] . Since the 1970s, the structural elucidation of the three natural CDs, α-, β-, and γ-CDs composed of 6-, 7-, and 8-membered α-D-glucopyranoses linked by α-1,4 glycosidic bonds, allowed the development and the rational study of their encapsulation properties [6, 7] . As their water solubility differs significantly, a great variety of modified CDs has been developed to improve the stability and the solubility of inclusion complexes [8] [9] [10] . Nowadays, CDs are widely applied in many fields [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] due to their host-guest properties, their origins (produced from starch by enzymatic conversion), their relatively low prices, their easy modifications, their biodegradability and their low toxicity. Moreover, CDs are able to interact with a wide range of biomol-Scheme 1: Structure and conventional representation of native CDs. ecules opening the way for many biological applications. The majority of these researches are based on the ability of CDs to extract lipids from the cell membrane. The objective of this contribution is to focus on the potential use of natural and chemically modified CDs in the vast array of medical and biological applications.