Cucurbit[n]uril type hosts for the reversal of steroidal neuromuscular blocking agents

Abstract

The ideal neuromuscular blocking agent (NMBA) is regarded as being a non-depolarizing equivalent of succinylcholine, having a rapid onset and short duration of action, with minimal side effects. In the absence of a single drug, the administration of an aminosteroid NMBA, such as rocuronium, followed by reversal using an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, such as neostigmine, is commonly employed. A different and safer approach to rapidly reversing the action of the NMBA, by encapsulating it with a macrocyclic or acyclic host molecule, such as the cyclodextrin sugammadex or more recently, cucurbituril-type hosts such as cyclic cucurbit[7]uril and the acyclic glycoluril tetramer calabadion 1, is described.