Platinum-based anticancer drugs have been becoming one of the most effective drugs for clinical treatment of malignant tumors for its unique mechanism of action and broad range of anticancer spectrum. But, there are still several problems such as side effects, drug resistance/cross resistance and no-specific targeting, becoming obstacles to restrict its expanding of clinical application. In recent years, supramolecular chemistry drug delivery systems have been gradually concerned for their favorable safety and low toxicity. Supramolecular macrocycles-platinum complexes increased the water solubility, stability and safety of traditional platinum drugs, and have become hot focus of developing novel platinum-based anticancer drugs because of its potential targeting of tumor tissues/organs. This article concentrates in the research progress of the new drug delivery system between platinum-based anticancer drugs with three generations of macrocycles: crown ether, cyclodextrin, cucurbituril and calixarene.

Platinum antitumor drugs are widely used for clinical treatment because of their unique antitumor mechanisms, significant antitumor effects, and broad antitumor spectrum. Yet shortcomings such as toxic side effects, drug resistance and cross-resistance of platinum-based drugs have limited their further application. Platinum-intercalator conjugates possess different antitumor mechanisms from those of classic platinum drugs, and have unique advantages in overcoming the disadvantages of classic platinum antitumor drugs. The platinum-intercalator conjugates can be classified into six categories based on the different DNA-intercalator: platinum-acridine, platinum-quinoline, platinum-indole, platinum-naphthalimides, platinum-anthraquinone and platinum-based antitumor agents containing other types of intercalating groups. This article summarizes the research progress of platinum-based antitumor drugs containing DNA insertion groups in recent years.