Cucurbit[<i>n</i>]urils (<i>n</i>=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 and murine macrophage cell line P388D1 and the moderate depressed activity on human leukaemia cell line K562.