Smart Therapeutics Achieved via Host–Guest Assemblies

Abstract

In recent years, host–guest assemblies have gained a lot of attention for their uses as smart therapeutic agents. Smart therapeutics involves the use of stimuli-triggered drug release and/or the integration of specific cell targeting agents for selective release of drugs within targeted cells. Common hosts such as crown ethers, pillararenes, calixarenes, cyclodextrins, and cucurbiturils have been employed for the formation of the host–guest assemblies. These host–guest assemblies can be categorized into pseudorotaxanes, rotaxanes, and catenanes. Some host–guest assemblies are used to further fabricate host–guest nanoparticles, polymer nanoparticles, micelles, and liposomes. In some cases, host–guest assemblies are functionalized on the surface of inorganic nanoparticles for various therapeutic applications.