As the major source of energy in the cell, mitochondria need to be able to effectively communicate their status to the nucleus. Defects in this process can have profound effects on the health of an organism and may affect its lifespan. The mitochondrial enzyme CLK-1 is required to produce ubiquinone for respiration and CLK-1 loss of function mutants have been shown to increase lifespan in both Caenorhabditis elegans and mammals. In this thesis, it is demonstrated that in addition to its mitochondrial role, CLK-1 also localises to the nucleus in C. elegans. This nuclear localisation is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and can be blocked using anti-oxidant treatment. In the nucleus CLK-1 regulates gene expression to suppress ROS production, suppresses the mitochondrial unfolded protein response and regulates lifespan. The importance of CLK-1 enzymatic activity for its nuclear role was also tested and it appears that enzymatic function is required to regulate ROS homeostasis but not for lifespan regulation. Interestingly, in fertile adult hermaphrodites nuclear CLK-1::GFP was only detected during the reproductive period. This suggests that there is a second mechanism regulating its localisation. This research indicates that CLK-1 may be part of a homeostatic regulatory mechanism that acts to suppress activation of stress responses in response to minor fluctuations in ROS levels.

Depuis plus d’un siècle, la chimie hétérocyclique représente l’un des plus vastes domaines de recherche en chimie organique. En particulier, les hétérocycles bicycliques fusionnés à 5 chaînons, contenant à la fois des atomes de soufre et d’azote, présentent, de par leur rareté et leur potentiel biologique, un champ d’intérêt croissant pour les équipes de recherche et développement académiques ou des entreprises pharmaceutiques. Parmi les nombreux composés bicycliques [5-5], notre étude s’est focalisée sur le noyau imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole décrit sporadiquement dans la littérature et pour lequel les voies d’accès actuelles ne se limitent qu’à une seule méthode faisant intervenir une étape de cyclisation et des conditions drastiques. Ce verrou entraine inéluctablement une faible diversité fonctionnelle autour de cet hétérocycle, restreignant ainsi les domaines d’applications notamment biologiques. Afin de pallier à cette problématique, nous avons initié une étude de la réactivité de chacune des trois positions fonctionnalisables du bicycle imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole, développant ainsi diverses réactions pallado-catalysées (Suzuki-Miyaura, CH-arylation, Buchwald-Hartwig), de substitution nucléophile aromatique et de Pictet-Spengler. L’étude des propriétés biologiques des différents composés synthétisés et hautement valorisables durant ces travaux a abouti à la découverte de deux séries de molécules inhibant sélectivement les kinases DYRK-1A et CLK-1, deux protéines d’intérêt dans le traitement des affections du système nerveux central (neuropathies, Alzheimer…). / For more than a century, heterocyclic chemistry is one of the largest area in organic chemistry research. In particular, because of their rarity and their biological potential, [5-5] fused ring heterocycles containing both sulfur and nitrogen atoms are a large area of interest for both academic and industrial research and development teams. Among these numerous [5-5] bicycles, our study is focused on imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole scaffold, which is quite few described in the literature and whose pathways are limited to almost one method involving a cyclisation step and drastic conditions. This lock leads inevitably to low functional diversity around this heterocycle, thus restricting its applications, including biological. In order to overcome this problematic, we then initiated the reactivity study of each three positions of the bicycle imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazole, developing thereby several palladium couplings (Suzuki-Miyaura, direct arylation, Buchwald-Hartwig), as well as aromatic nucleophilic substitution and Pictet-Spengler reaction. The study of the biological properties of the different compounds synthesized in this work and highly valuable led to the discovery of two series of molecules, inhibiting selectively DYRK-1A and CLK-1, two kinases of interest in the treatment of dysfunction of central nervous system (neuropathies, Alzheimer…).