Complexation of fisetin with novel cyclosophoroase dimer to improve solubility and bioavailability

Rhizobium species produce cyclosophoraose (Cys), which is an unbranched cyclic β-(1,2)-glucan. We synthesized novel cationic cyclosophoraose dimer (Cys dimer) and its structure was confirmed via NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis. In this study, we investigated the complexation of hardly soluble drug fisetin (3,3′,4′,7-tetrahydroxyflavone) with Cys dimer to improve the solubility of fisetin, and its solubility was increased up to 6.5-fold. The solubility of fisetin with Cys dimer showed 2.4-fold better than with β-cyclodextrin. The fisetin–Cys dimer complex was characterized by using, phase solubility diagram, 2D NMR, FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM, DSC analysis and molecular modeling. Through the molecular docking simulations, complexation ability of fisetin with host molecules were in the following order: Cys dimer > Cys monomer > β-CD. The fisetin–Cys dimer complex showed also higher cytotoxicity to HeLa cells than free fisetin, indicating that the Cys dimer to improve bioavailability of fisetin.