Controlled drug delivery systems based on calixarenes

In recent years, cancer has become the number two cause of death around the world, and scientists have exploited various treatment maps. Calixarenes, with diversified features, have been widely applied into drug delivery systems, which can respond to multi-stimuli and exhibit excellent performance. In this mini-review, we summarize the recent advances on controlled drug delivery systems based on calixarenes, in the form of inclusion complexes, amphiphilic self-assembly nanocarriers including micelles, hydrogels, vesicles and liposomes, and supramolecular nanovalves on mesoporous silica nanomaterials.