The macrocyclic molecular container cucurbit [7]uril (CB[7]), the most water-soluble homologue in the cucurbit[n]uril family (n = 5-8, 10, 14), has been evaluated for its in vivo toxicity profile, including its developmental toxicity such as its effect on hatching, growth and survival, as well as its potential organ-specific toxicities such as cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and locomotion and behavioral toxicity, using zebrafish models. The results revealed that CB[7] has measureable cardiotoxicity and locomotion and behavioral toxicity at concentrations of ~500 µM or higher, and negligible developmental and hepatotoxicity at concentrations up to 750 µM, although extended exposure to CB[7] at the 500-750 µM concentration range induced the mortality of tested fish. These results demonstrate for the first time with live in vivo animal models that

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The effects of the encapsulation of drugs and other molecules of biomedical interest by cucurbit[n]uril (n = 5-8, 10) host molecules on the chemical properties of the drugs in aqueous solution are reviewed. The cucurbituril complexation of drug molecules has been shown to generally increase the guests' pK a values through preferential inclu-sion of the protonated species, modulate other equilibria involving the guest, improve the solubility in aqueous solution, reduce the toxicity and other side effects, as well as enhance the stability and targeted delivery of the drug molecule. These benefits have led to an increasing interest in the applications of cucurbit[n]urils in novel drug formulations.

Cucurbit[7]uril significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo uptake of coumarin-6, on an epithelial cell model and a zebrafish model.

The inclusion of protonated 2-aminoanthracene in the cavity of cucurbit[7]uril increases its pKa values in the ground and excited states, resulting in the disappearance of the green emission of the neutral excited state and the significant enhancement of the blue emissions from the protonated excited state guest.