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Baicalin (BA) has been shown with anti-HIV-1 activity. Zinc is a nutrient element. The anti-HIV-1 activity of zinc complex of baicalin (BA-Zn) in vitro was studied and compared with the anti-HIV-1 activities between BA and BA-Zn in the present study. Our results suggested that BA-Zn has lower cytotoxicity and higher anti-HIV-1 activity compared with those of BA in vitro. The CC50s of BA-Zn and BA were 221.52 and 101.73 microM, respectively. The cytotoxicity of BA-Zn was about 1.2-fold lower than that of BA. The BA and BA-Zn inhibited HIV-1 induced syncytium formation, HIV-1 p24 antigen and HIV-1 RT production. The EC50s of BA-Zn on inhibiting HIV-1 induced syncytium formation (29.08 microM) and RT production (31.17 microM) were lower than those of BA (43.27 and 47.34 microM, respectively). BA-Zn was more effective than BA in inhibiting the activities of recombinant RT and HIV-1 entry into host cells. Zinc coupling enhanced the anti-HIV-1 activity of baicalin.

Three water-soluble oxaliplatin complexes were prepared by inclusion complexation with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), γ-CD and HP-β-CD. The structures of oxaliplatin/CDs were confirmed by NMR, FTIR, TGA, XRD as well as SEM analysis. The results show that the water solubility of oxaliplatin was increased in the complex with CDs in 1:1 stoichiometry inclusion modes, and the cyclohexane ring of oxaliplatin molecule was deeply inserted into the cavity of CDs. Moreover, the stoichiometry was established by a Job plot and the water stability constant (Kc) of oxaliplatin/CDs was calculated by phase solubility studies, all results show that the oxaliplatin/β-CD complex is more stable than free oxaliplatin, oxaliplatin/HP-β-CD and oxaliplatin/γ-CD. Meanwhile, the inclusion complexes displayed almost twice as high cytotoxicity compared to free oxaliplatin against HCT116 and MCF-7 cells. This satisfactory water solubility and higher cytotoxic activity of the oxaliplatin/CD complexes will potentially be useful for their application in anti-tumour therapy.

The inclusion complex of picoplatin with γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD) was prepared and characterised by different analytical methods, including NMR, FTIR, TGA, phase solubility as well as SEM. All of these approaches indicated that picoplatin was able to form an inclusion complex with γ-CD, and that the picoplatin/γ-CD inclusion compounds exhibited different spectroscopic features and properties from free picoplatin. The stoichiometry of the complex was 1:1; the pyridine group of picoplatin was deeply inserted into the cavity of γ-CD and the amine platinum group of picoplatin was near the narrower rim of γ-CD. The calculated apparent stability constant of the complex was 10,318M(-1). Moreover, the water solubility of picoplatin was significantly improved, according to phase-solubility studies. The complex maintained its anticancer activity, as shown by an in vitro cell-survival assay on A549 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. All of these results showed that inclusion complexation may be a promising strategy to design a novel formulation of picoplatin as an anticancer therapy.