Cancer was responsible for an estimated 13% of all deaths worldwide in 2012. The main treatment for cancer remains chemotherapy; however, it faces problems due to low specificity and systemic toxicity. A way to improve chemotherapy is to use nanocarriers such as cyclodextrins. This study concerns the synthesis of prodrugs from known anticancer drugs to enhance their complexation with cyclodextrins. The focus has been on the synthesis of Doxorubicin and Gemcitabine prodrugs in order to improve their complexation with cyclodextrin and thereby minimize the side effects and improve their affinity.

Assessments of each molecule were made and four different prodrugs (two of each) were designed and synthesized. The final four products were isolated in ~10-20 mg. The complex formation of the synthesized prodrugs was analyzed by ITC. Five different β-cyclodextrins derivatives were chosen and obtained KA values were compared.