Cyclodextrins: New materials for drug disposition

Abstract

Cyclodextrins are oligosaccharides which have recently been recognized as useful pharmaceutical excipients. The objective of this review is to summarized recent findings and applications of both unmodified and modified cyclodextrins for drug delivery. Its ability to form inclusion complexes with many drugs, were explored for designing of a particular drug carrier system. Cyclodextrin inclusion complexes demonstrate great potential against improvement of solubility, stability, dissolution rate, enhancement through biological membrane, etc. Furthermore, its safety profiles, via a variety of administration routes (oral, parenteral, transmucosal) are addressed. Finally, this paper is primarily focused on the findings related to the effects of cyclodextrins/anticancer drugs and cyclodextrins/prostaglandins delivery systems, and on the therapeutical potentiality of drugs.