Dinh-Vu Nguyen

Au cours de ce travail, nous nous sommes intéressés à la synthèse d'un analogue de Milnacipran, une molécule commercialisée sous le nom d'Ixel pour son activité anti-dépresseur. Il s'agit d'un cyclobutane trisubstitué portant deux centres stéréogènes contigus. L'objectif est de développer une voie de synthèse efficace et transposable à la version énantiosélective.Nous avons également travaillé sur la formulation nanométrique d'épiPodophyllotoxines, un produit naturel biologiquement active. Nous avons imaginé une architecture moléculaire permettant à la molécule de s'auto-assembler en micelle, ainsi elle peut être transportée de manière efficace au tumeur cancéreux. Les études in vitro et in vivo ont apporté des résultats prometteurs vis-à-vis du potentiel thérapeutique de notre nano-objet. Enfin nous avons étudié au cours de cette thèse deux méthodologies: la réactivité des époxydes en milieu alcalin fort et les dérivés d'organobismuth pour les réactions d'oxydation. Ces derniers ont été exploités afin d'oxyder des hydroxylamines en nitrone dans des conditions douces, permettant de réaliser le tandem oxydation/cycloaddition 1,3 dipolaire in situ avec des alcynes tendus.

We reported herein an efficient method for constructing dendritic bisphosphonic acid tweezers of generation 1 and 2, which have been proven as versatile surface coatings for metal oxides implants or nanoparticles. These dendritic structures were successfully utilized for different purposes: (i) biocompatible coverings for iron oxide nanoparticles through in vitro assays, (ii) antifouling surface coatings for silica through quartz crystal microbalance studies, and (iii) stabilizing ligands for magnetic nanoparticle–microbubble conjugates via preliminary Langmuir monolayer studies.

Dendrons consisting of two phosphonate functions and three oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) chains grafted on a central phenoxyethylcarbamoylphenoxy group were synthesized and investigated as Langmuir monolayers at the surface of water. The OEG chain in the para position was grafted with a t-Bu end-group, a hydrocarbon chain, or a partially fluorinated chain. These dendrons are models of structurally related OEG dendrons that were found to significantly improve the stability of aqueous dispersions of iron oxide nanoparticles when grafted on their surface. Compression isotherms showed that all OEG dendrons formed liquid-expanded Langmuir monolayers at large molecular areas. Further compression led to a transition ascribed to the solubilization of the OEG chains in the aqueous phase. Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) provided evidence that the dendrons fitted with hydrocarbon chains formed liquid-expanded monolayers throughout compression, whilst those fitted with fluorinated end-groups formed crystalline-like domains, even at large molecular areas. Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and dendron molecules were partially miscible in monolayers. The deviations to ideality were larger for the dendrons fitted with a fluorocarbon end-group chain than for those fitted with a hydrocarbon chain. Brewster angle microscopy and atomic force microscopy supported the view that the dendrons were ejected from the phospholipid monolayer during the OEG conformational transition and formed crystalline domains on the surface of the monolayer.

Dendrons fitted with three oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) chains, one of which contains a fluorinated or hydrogenated end group and bears a bisphosphonate polar head (C_nX_2n+1OEG₈Den, X = F or H; n = 2 or 4), were synthesized and grafted on the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) for microbubble-mediated imaging and therapeutic purposes. The size and stability of the dendronized IONPs (IONP@C_nX_2n+1OEG₈Den) in aqueous dispersions were monitored by dynamic light scattering. The investigation of the spontaneous adsorption of IONP@C_nX_2n+1OEG₈Den at the interface between air or air saturated with perfluorohexane and an aqueous phase establishes that exposure to the fluorocarbon gas markedly increases the rate of adsorption of the dendronized IONPs to the gas/water interface and decreases the equilibrium interfacial tension. This suggests that fluorous interactions are at play between the supernatant fluorocarbon gas and the fluorinated end groups of the dendrons. Furthermore, small perfluorohexane-stabilized microbubbles (MBs) with a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) shell that incorporates IONP@C_nX_2n+1OEG₈Den (DPPC/Fe molar ratio 28:1) were prepared and subsequently characterized using both optical microscopy and an acoustical method of size determination. The dendrons fitted with fluorinated end groups lead to smaller and more stable MBs than those fitted with hydrogenated groups. The most effective result is already obtained with C₂F₅, for which MBs of ≈1.0 μm in radius reach a half-life of ≈6.0 h. An atomic force microscopy investigation of spin-coated mixed films of DPPC/IONP@C₂X₅OEG₈Den combinations (molar ratio 28:1) shows that the IONPs grafted with the fluorinated dendrons are located within the phospholipid film, while those grafted with the hydrocarbon dendrons are located at the surface of the phospholipid film.

Being crucial under several pathological conditions, tumors, and tissue engineering, the MRI tracing of hypoxia within cells and tissues would be improved by the use of nanosystems allowing for direct recognition of low oxygenation and further treatment-oriented development. In the present study, we functionalized dendron-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (dendronized IONPs) with a bioreductive compound, a metronidazole-based ligand, to specifically detect the hypoxic tissues. Spherical IONPs with an average size of 10 nm were obtained and then decorated with the new metronidazole-conjugated dendron. The resulting nanoparticles (metro-NPs) displayed negligible effects on cell viability, proliferation, and metabolism, in both monolayer and 3D cell culture models, and a good colloidal stability in bio-mimicking media, as shown by DLS. Overtime quantitative monitoring of the IONP cell content revealed an enhanced intracellular retention of metro-NPs under anoxic conditions, confirmed by the in vitro MRI of cell pellets where a stronger negative contrast generation was observed in hypoxic primary stem cells and tumor cells after labeling with metro-NPs. Overall, these results suggest desirable properties in terms of interactions with the biological environment and capability of selective accumulation into the hypoxic tissue, and indicate that metro-NPs have considerable potential for the development of new nano-platforms especially in the field of anoxia-related diseases and tissue engineered models.

Owing to the great potential of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) for nanomedicine, large efforts have been made to better control their magnetic properties, especially their magnetic anisotropy to provide NPs able to combine imaging by MRI and therapy by magnetic hyperthermia. In that context, the design of anisotropic NPs appears as a very promising and efficient strategy. Furthermore, their bioactive coating also remains a challenge as it should provide colloidal stability, biocompatibility, furtivity along with good water diffusion for MRI. By taking advantage of our controlled synthesis method of iron oxide NPs with different shapes (cubic, spherical, octopod and nanoplate), we demonstrate here that the dendron coating, shown previously to be very suitable for 10 nm sized iron oxide, also provided very good colloidal, MRI and antifouling properties to the anisotropic shaped NPs. These antifouling properties, demonstrated through several experiments and characterizations, are very promising to achieve specific targeting of disease tissues without affecting healthy organs. On the other hand, the magnetic hyperthermia properties were shown to depend on the saturation magnetization and the ability of NPs to self-align, confirming the need of a balance between crystalline and dipolar magnetic anisotropies.

Micelle-forming amphiphilic drug conjugates were synthesized starting from a biologically active epipodophyllotoxin derivative which was covalently inserted in between a hydrophilic PEG unit and a hydrophobic stearyl chain. The epipodophyllotoxin-containing amphiphiles were assembled into the corresponding micelles which were evaluated in vivo for their tumor targeting properties.

The asymmetric synthesis of a cyclobutane analogue of the antidepressant drug Milnacipran is reported. The optically active derivative incorporates a central cyclobutane ring in lieu of the cyclopropane unit classically found in Milnacipran. The two stereogenic centres borne by the cyclobutane were sequentially installed starting from phenylacetonitrile.

Rhodium nanoparticles were assembled on carbon nanotubes, and the resulting nanohybrid was studied in the aerobic oxidation of hydroxylamines to nitrones. Two catalytic systems were developed (i.e., direct or co‐catalytic) and both operated to provide high yields of the products, under mild conditions, but with their own specificity as regards the kinetics and regioselectivity of the transformation. In addition, the in situ cycloaddition of the produced nitrones with different alkynes was investigated.