Editorial [Hot Topic: “Supramolecular Approaches for Improving Drug Delivery Processes” (Guest Editor: Grzegorz Bazylak)]

Celebration by all scientific community 40th anniversary of supramolecular chemistry (SUP-CHEM) in the year 2007 give rise and also summarize its impact on developments of innovative drug formulation and novel pharmacotherapy schemes. For example, probably the most exploited area of macromolecular nanomedicines in the past four decades is the host-guest complexation of poorly soluble and orally administered drugs by cyclodextrins (CDs), as they are the major class of macrocyclic organic host compounds, and are documented by more than 6000 published papers and approved patents. Incorporation of cyclodextrins into a drug dosage form first affects the activity of basic pharmaceutical ingredients by increasing their dissolution rate, solubility and bioavailability, and, secondly, modify the properties of the whole prepared drug formulation by enhancing its stability, taste masking, binding, filling, channeling, osmogenic action, etc. Nearly 40 marketed commercial drug products have been benefited in the same way from such CD technology in the 2003 year. However, CDformulated drugs cannot not be considered as the simple generic drugs, but they are considered as the ‘super generic’ drugs there improvement should be accelerated by more adequate bioequivalence testing. This molecular encapsulation approach of therapeutic agents was further exploited in last years by using huge varieties of macrocyclic and macromolecular compounds as calixarenes, dendrimers, rotaxanes, catenanes, polymeric composite materials and monoclonal antibodies. Moreover, this next generation of easy available, nanosized supramolecular materials has enabled not only the development of new targeted and tuneable drug delivery technologies, pathogen inhibition and cell transfection agents, but also has introduced a range of selective and potent antiadhesives, enzyme blocking, anti-thrombotic, and anti-viral agents. Examples of such forefront solutions from nanostructured SUP-CHEM in order to design controlled, smart and personalized drug delivery systems will be illustrated here in a special issue of the journal Current Drug Discovery Technologies. The introductory review paper by Oshima et al. describes highly specific recognition of protein surfaces by range of anionic calixarene derivatives enabling selective extraction and solubilization of cytochrome c into organic solution without losing catalytic peroxidase activity. These considerations are continued in review paper by Vieira Ferreira and Ferreira Machado, which describes the use of intensified charge couple devices in the surface photochemistry studies on the inclusion of complex formation within tert-butylated calixerene cavity by labile conformers of alkylaryl ketones, diketones and their derivatives. In addition, the minireview paper by Cheng et al. presents recent developments on design, synthesis and precise functional regulation of novel glycodendritic architectures applied as nanostructured immuno-modulating vaccines, nanocontainer glycoproteomics probes, functionalized glycochips, and photoaffinity labeling agents for investigation of receptor binding sites. Similarly, review paper by Bazylak et al. describes the current status of high-throughput chiral HPLC procedures used in the emerging field of enantioselective analysis of beta-adrenergic and beta-adrenolytic drugs, thus enabling fast and reproducible recognition of their diverse pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, as well as valuable assessment of their biodistribution, biocompatibility and binding processes by native, modified, derivatized and functionalized cyclodextrins, polysaccharides, macrocyclic glycopeptides and various synthetic receptors. This approach is continued in the research paper by Kataoka et al. describing the thermosensitivity of polyrotaxanes, consisting of methylated alpha-cyclodextrin topologically bound to a linear molecule as poly(ethylene glycol), which enable reversible micellization or gelation of hydrophobic drugs in water.........