Cyclodextrins (CDs) are natural, nontoxic, and biodegradable macrocyclic oligosaccharides. As supramolecular hosts, CDs have numerous applications in many aspects. However, nonsubstituted CDs have the disadvantages of solubility, unspecific recognition sites, and weak interactions with guest molecules. Therefore, new CD-based derivatives are successfully designed, synthesized, and widely used in various fields. This contribution outlines the research progress in CD derivatives. In particular, this review emphasizes the synthesis and application of CDs modified through functionalization in definite positions, random substitution, and reconstruction of the skeleton. At the end of this review, a summary and future directions are presented.Recently CDs have a wide range of applications in cancer treatment owing to the particularity of their different ring spaces. CDs could increase the solubility of anticancer flavonoids, such as curcumin and quercetin, which are very poorly soluble in water [41,42]. A novel CD complex of curcumin had superior attributes compared with free curcumin for cellular uptake and for antiproliferative and antiinflammatory activities, preferentially aggregating in the pancreas and possessing strong anticancer activity against pancreatic or tubulin surface cancer cells [41,43]. Similarly, the solubility of quercetin could be improved linearly with the increasing molality of CDs at the same temperature [44].
Selective modifications of CDs at definite positions
Monosubstitution of CDsWhen natural CDs are unsuitable for a particular application, chemists begin to modify CDs to allow their derivatives to perform their intended function. To pursue an increasingly perfect structure, the idea of monosubstituted CD derivatives was conceived. However, the direct synthesis of single-isomer CD derivatives is challenging [45]. A single substitution has three possible isomers (Figure 2).