Research progress of the drug delivery system of antitumor platinum drugs with macrocyclic compounds

Platinum-based anticancer drugs have been becoming one of the most effective drugs for clinical treatment of malignant tumors for its unique mechanism of action and broad range of anticancer spectrum. But, there are still several problems such as side effects, drug resistance/cross resistance and no-specific targeting, becoming obstacles to restrict its expanding of clinical application. In recent years, supramolecular chemistry drug delivery systems have been gradually concerned for their favorable safety and low toxicity. Supramolecular macrocycles-platinum complexes increased the water solubility, stability and safety of traditional platinum drugs, and have become hot focus of developing novel platinum-based anticancer drugs because of its potential targeting of tumor tissues/organs. This article concentrates in the research progress of the new drug delivery system between platinum-based anticancer drugs with three generations of macrocycles: crown ether, cyclodextrin, cucurbituril and calixarene.