Recent Development of Copolymeric Delivery System for Anticancer Agents Based on Cyclodextrin Derivatives

Core-shell structured aggregates of amphiphilic block copolymer are hopefully drug delivery system because of their ability to encapsulate hydrophobic drugs, and their hydrophilic shell can prolong retention time of drugs in the blood circulation system. Cyclodextrin is a kind of hydrophilic polysaccharide containing multiple hydroxyl groups, providing an inner hole that can load small molecule through host-guest interaction. These hydroxyl groups or their derived functional ones are utilized in conjugation with polymeric chains to form block copolymers. These copolymers can not only encapsulate hydrophobic drugs, but also encapsulate hydrophilic drugs (like DNA, protein, etc) through hydrophobic, host-guest or electrostatic interactions, which strengthen interaction between drugs and materials compared with general copolymers, indicating that formed drug delivery systems are more stable. By introduction of target molecule, they also achieve selective delivery of drugs to specific tissues or organs. So, several researchers are stimulated to carry out many studies for the development of cyclodextrin copolymeric drug delivery systems in recent. In this review, we focus the cyclodextrin copolymers’ application in the anticancer agents’ delivery.