In the recent years, there has been a growing interest in using inclusion complex interactions as tools to build tailorable nanostructures. Cyclodextrin polymers, which contain a large number of specific sites (CD) on the chain, can be used to create highly connected assemblies by association with an amphiphilic copolymer. Depending on several parameters like the concentrations of the polymers in the mixture, the hydrophobic molar ratio of the amphiphilic copolymer, highly viscous solutions, reversible gels or nanoparticles are formed. Those hydrophilic systems can be used as drug carrier, the drugs being solubilized by inclusion in the CD cavities. At interfaces, these associations are also used to modify reversibly the properties of the surface. The CD polymer is then directly adsorbed at the solid surface while the outer layer is due to the subsequent fixation of the amphiphilic copolymer. The affinity between the two polymers can be made dependant on the pH, ionic strength or wavelength by choosing the hydrophobic guest. Moreover, addition of CD polymers to hydrophobically modified PNIPAMs allows a control of the temperature dependence of the system. More complex macromolecular assemblies are realized from a combination of electrostatic and inclusion complex interactions. Ternary systems made of anionic polymer/ cationic surfactant/ CD polymer have been elaborated in the frame of gene therapy with the need of new DNA vectors. DNA fragments, as well as different other anionic polymers like Dextran sulfate, Polystyrene sulfonate, have been shown to participate to these ternary complexes. Small angle neutron scattering and viscometry studies have shown that the structural properties of the complexes are strongly dependant on the charge ratio in the system. In vitro transfection efficiency of the DNA vectors have been studied on human hepatocarcinoma cells and promising results have been obtained. – -C. Amiel et B. Sébille, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 79, 105-122 (1999). – Galant, C.; Amiel, C.; Wintgens, V.; Sébille, B.; Auvray, L. Langmuir 18, 9687 (2002) – C. Galant, C. Amiel, L. Auvray, J. Phys. Chem. B, 108, 19218-19227 (2004). – V. Burckbuchler, V. Wintgens, S. Lecomte, A. Percot, C. Leborgne, O. Danos, A. Kichler, C. Amiel , Biopolymers, 81, 360-370 (2006).
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