Cucurbit[n]urils (n=7, 8) binding of camptothecin and the effects on solubility and reactivity of the anticancer drug

The interaction between cucurbit[n]uril (n = 7, 8)(Q[n]) with two forms namely lactone modality and carboxylate modality of anticancer drug camptothecin (CPT) was studied. The results revealed that the combination of Q[n] with the lactone form of CPT was observed by electronic absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and 1H NMR technique in the acid solution (pH 2) and the total stability constants β were also obtained by Job plot with a host:guest ratio of 2:1; while in the phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4), only Q[8] bound the carboxylate form of CPT in ratio 1:1, but no obvious interaction between Q[7] and the carboxylate form of CPT was observed. The solubility of CPT was enhanced up to about 70 and 8 times at pH 2 due to the formation of interaction complexes with Q[7] and Q[8], respectively, by using phase solubility method. The cytotoxicity tests revealed that compared with the free CPT, the complexes of Q[n] and CPT had the same cytotoxic activity on the human lung cancer cell line A549...