*Article* **Exploring Charged Polymeric Cyclodextrins for Biomedical Applications**

**Noemi Bognanni <sup>1</sup> , Francesco Bellia <sup>2</sup> , Maurizio Viale <sup>3</sup> , Nadia Bertola <sup>3</sup> and Graziella Vecchio 1,4,\***


**Abstract:** Over the years, cyclodextrin uses have been widely reviewed and their proprieties provide a very attractive approach in different biomedical applications. Cyclodextrins, due to their characteristics, are used to transport drugs and have also been studied as molecular chaperones with potential application in protein misfolding diseases. In this study, we designed cyclodextrin polymers containing different contents of β- or γ-cyclodextrin, and a different number of guanidinium positive charges. This allowed exploration of the influence of the charge in delivering a drug and the effect in the protein anti-aggregant ability. The polymers inhibit Amiloid β peptide aggregation; such an ability is modulated by both the type of CyD cavity and the number of charges. We also explored the effect of the new polymers as drug carriers. We tested the Doxorubicin toxicity in different cell lines, A2780, A549, MDA-MB-231 in the presence of the polymers. Data show that the polymers based on γ-cyclodextrin modified the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin in the A2780 cell line.

**Keywords:** aggregation; cancer; doxorubicin; nanoparticles
