AUTHOR=Das Debapratim , Assaf Khaleel I. , Nau Werner M. 

TITLE=Applications of Cucurbiturils in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2019.00619

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2019.00619

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>The supramolecular chemistry of cucurbit[<italic>n</italic>]urils (CB<italic>n</italic>) has been rapidly developing to encompass diverse medicinal applications, including drug formulation and delivery, controlled drug release, and sensing for bioanalytical purposes. This is made possible by their unique recognition properties and very low cytotoxicity. In this review, we summarize the host-guest complexation of biologically important molecules with CB<italic>n</italic>, and highlight their implementation in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology.</p>