Most cancer chemotherapy regimens rely on the use of two or more chemotherapeutic agents. A supramolecular approach that may allow co-delivery of two drugs is described here.

Traditional macrocyclic hosts have finite cavity sizes, generally 5-10 , which are commonly adaptive to recognize small guests rather than biological macromolecules. Here two water-soluble large-sized quaterphen [n]arenes (WQPns, n = 3, 4) were designed and synthesized. These two hosts present significantly distinct recognition abilities. Specifically, they could strongly complex an antimicrobial peptide, pexiganan (PXG) with the association constants (K a ) of (4.20 AE 0.23) 10 4 M À1 for PXG/WQP3 and (2.46 AE 0.44) 10 5 M À1 for PXG/WQP4. Complexation of PXG by WQP3 and WQP4 served to decrease the hemolysis of PXG in rabbit red blood cells in a statistically significant way. Furthermore, host-guest complexation was shown to substantially enhance metabolic stability of PXG in presence of proteinase K, rat plasma and liver or kidney homogenates.

Poisoning by organophosphorus agents (OPs) is a serious public health issue across the world. These compounds irreversibly inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE), resulting in accumulation of acetylcholine (ACh) and overstimulation of ACh...

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