Giving drug dropouts a new lease of life

A model of a cucurbituril interacting with CF3CO2H.  (C, grey; H, white; N, blue; O, red; F, green; hydrogen bond, red-yellow striped)

Researchers in the US have designed a molecular container that can encapsulate drug molecules and increase their solubility - in one case by almost 3000 times. The new container appears to have low toxicity and can be built from readily available reagents. The finding opens the possibility of re-testing drug candidates that failed because they were insufficiently soluble or improving existing low-solubility drugs. [read more]