“…It determines their solubility in aqueous environment, lipophilicity and membrane permeability, ability to ionic and hydrophobic interactions, activity and functionality in biological systems (including endo- and exo-genic compounds), and particular behaviors in analytical systems, e.g., retention on column in chromatography or migration time in electrophoresis. The idea to modify p K
a using the non-covalent interactions, known as a supramolecular acidity (p K
a ) tuning, is a potential way to enhance bioavailability and therapeutic activity of drugs [1–3], to modulate physicochemical properties of dyes [4, 5], to create sophisticated catalysis systems [6], and to develop more efficient analytical methods [7]. The recent studies showed that the supramolecular host-guest interactions involving the macrocyclic hosts, like cyclodextrins (CDs), calixarenes, and cucurbiturils, may induce p K
a shifts in both directions and of a diverse magnitude, reaching +1.5 pH unit for CDs, +2.4 for calixarenes, and even above +5 units for cucurbiturils [1, 7, 8].…”