Cyclodextrin is a general term for cyclic oligosaccharides formed by 6 or more glucopyranose molecules. It is generally a chemically and physically stable macromolecule produced by the degradation of amylases. Cyclodextrins are water-soluble and inherently biocompatible with a hydrophilic outer surface and a lipophilic cavity. Due to the chair conformation of the glucopyranose units, they have the shape of a truncated cone or torus rather than a perfect cylinder. Cyclodextrins are divided into natural and derived cyclodextrins. Natural cyclodextrins contain three cyclic oligosaccharides. Of these, the most common natural cyclodextrins are alpha, beta and gamma cyclodextrins composed of 6, 7 and 8 glucopyranose units. They are crystalline, homogeneous and non-hygroscopic substances. Among them, β-cyclodextrin is an ideal complexing agent due to its perfect cavity size, efficient drug complexation and loading, availability, and relatively low cost.

Figure 1. Cyclodextrins in drug delivery: applications in gene and combination therapy. (Haley RM, et al.; 2020)

It has been shown that CDs can be used for gene delivery because not only do they have binding affinity for nucleic acids, but they also attenuate the cytotoxicity of other gene carriers. And β-cyclodextrin has attracted much attention because of its cheap and easy availability, good biocompatibility and solubilization of some hydrophobic drugs. Structurally, the outer surface of β-cyclodextrin is hydrophilic due to the presence of hydroxyl groups, and its cavity is hydrophobic due to the shielding effect of carbon-hydrogen bonds. The feature of "hydrophilic outside, hydrophobic inside" makes it easy to include hydrophobic molecules with suitable size, such as adamantane, ferrocene, azobenzene, benzene ring, benzimidazole, etc.. In addition, cyclodextrins also possess stimulus-response-induced "inclusion-uninclusion" properties. Therefore, supramolecular polymers based on cyclodextrin host-guest inclusion can exhibit rich self-assembly and stimuli-responsive properties in solution, and can be used as drug or gene delivery carriers to improve the environmental response of the carrier. It can reduce the cytotoxicity of the carrier and improve the physiological activity and bioavailability of the drug molecule. Therefore, a series of linear cationic β-CD-based polymers (βCDPs) constructed by the condensation of diamino-CD monomers with diimine comonomers have been shown to efficiently deliver a variety of nucleic acids in vivo, including plasmid DNA, DNAzymes and Short Interfering RNAs (siRNAs). These polymer-nucleic acid complexes (complexes) can be further modified to incorporate targeting ligands, such as transferrin, to induce preferential uptake of the complex by cells expressing high levels of the cognate receptor.

The Advantages of Our Cyclodextrin As Transfection Vector:

1.  It can enhance the adsorption capacity of the delivery carrier on the cell membrane, thereby improving the uptake of cells;

2.  The coating of cyclodextrin carrier can prevent the degradation of nucleic acid in vivo;

3. The stimuli-response characteristics of cyclodextrin can make the delivery system controllable;

4. It can avoid the occurrence of non-specific reactions;

5. Using the host-guest inclusion effect of the cyclodextrin cavity, the prepared gene vector can achieve various functionalizations, such as targeting ligand modification.

6. Specific regions can be targeted, and then the contained genes are expressed in specific tissues or cells.

Our Advantage Services:

• Customized cyclodextrin transfection kits according to customer needs
• Provide different types of cyclodextrin carriers for users to choose
• Can provide screening of different vectors to determine the best transfection vector
• Professional design and service team to provide you with reliable service and technical support
• Timely feedback of technical reports

CD BioSciences specializes in developing transfection systems and customizing transfection reagents for gene transfection using our core technologies. With our high-quality products and services, your transfection results can be greatly improved.

Reference

1. Gidwani B, Vyas A. A Comprehensive Review on Cyclodextrin-Based Carriers for Delivery of Chemotherapeutic Cytotoxic Anticancer Drugs. Biomed Res Int. 2015; 2015:198268.
2. Haley RM, et al.; Cyclodextrins in drug delivery: applications in gene and combination therapy. Drug Deliv Transl Res. 2020 Jun;10(3):661-677.
3. Lai WF. Cyclodextrins in non-viral gene delivery. Biomaterials. 2014 Jan;35(1):401-11.

* For research use only. Not for use in clinical diagnosis or treatment of humans or animals.