Computational and Experimental Binding Interactions of Drug and β-Cyclodextrin as a Drug- Delivery Vehicle

cyclodextrins are primarily used to enhance the aqueous solubility and stability of drug molecules and they can be chemically modified to display functional groups on their primary or secondary rim. It belongs to the cyclic polymers (α-1,4) - linked oligosaccharides of α-glucopyranose units with hydrophobic inner core and hydrophilic outer surface. This combination of functionality and guest binding ability makes Cyclodextrin is an important scaffold to design functional supramolecular systems. Due to its structural characteristics, it can interact with appropriately sized drug molecules to form an inclusion complex. Inclusion into the Cyclodextrin’s cavity alters the physicochemical properties of an included compound, especially on increasing its dissolution rate and sometimes in increasing the drug inhibition rate. Structural factors raise favor for this non-covalent inclusion complex and offer a variety of pharmaceutical applications that may be used in many industrial products. The negligible cytotoxic effects of cyclodextrin are an important attribute in applications such as drug carriers, food and flavors, cosmetics, packing, textiles, separation processes, environment protection, fermentation, and catalysis. Through this chapter, we aimed to summarize Cyclodextrin’s applications in drug delivery research through experimental and computational findings. In addition, we tried to present the highlights of various techniques of inclusion complex formations, mechanism of delivery systems and their analytical methods.

Keywords: Drug Delivery, Drug, Drug-Polymer Interactions, Drug Carriers, β- Cyclodextrin, Inclusion Complex, SEM, TEM.