Dendritic cells (DCs) are regulators of the immune system and express a class of pattern recognition receptors known as C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) to recognize and respond to carbohydrates (glycans). Dendritic cells are hypothesized to be key mediators in the immune response to implanted materials and ligation of CLRs has been shown to have diverse effects on DC phenotype ranging from tolerogenic to pro-inflammatory. Thus, designing future biomaterials and combination products that harness the potential of CLR ligation on DCs has great promise. Additionally, many of the proteins which adsorb to biomaterials when implanted are glycosylated and thus understanding this interaction would provide further insight into the host response to currently implanted materials. However, DC responses to glycans presented from non-phagocytosable surfaces has not been well characterized and optimal factors for DC phenotype modulation by surface presented glycans are unknown. Additionally, studies relating DC response to glycan structures from soluble and phagocytosable displays to that of non-phagocytosable display have not been performed. This is of critical importance to the field because of the extremely limited supply of complex glycan structures that are able to be obtained. Because of this limited supply of glycans the trend in glycomics has been toward creation of glycan microarrays to assess initial candidates of interest for further study. However, the assumption that cell response to these glycoconjugate microarrays is equivalent to soluble or phagocytosable conjugates has not been validated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to 1) determine the optimal molecular contextual variables of glycoconjugate presentation from a non-phagocytosable surface, namely, charge, density, and glycan structure for modulating DC phenotype; and 2) determine if modality of glycoconjugate presentation, i.e. soluble, phagocytosable, or non-phagocytosable will modulate DC phenotype differentially. To determine the effect of the molecular contextual variables primary human immature DCs (iDCs) were exposed to a range of adsorbed glycoconjugates in a 384 well plate and their subsequent phenotype assessed via a novel in house produced high throughput (HTP) assay. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was modified to have a range of glycan densities and isoelectric points to determine which of these were optimal for DC phenotype modulation. Next, several poly-mannose structures were presented to DCs to determine if DC response was structure specific. Finally, contextual variables were modeled in a multivariate general linear model to determine underlying trends in DC behavior and optimal factors for glycan presentation from non-phagocytosable surfaces. To determine the effect of the modality of glycoconjugate display on DCs, optimized glycoconjugates from 1) were adsorbed to the wells of a 384 flat well plate, delivered at varying soluble concentrations, or adsorbed to phagocytosable 1 µm beads and subsequent DC phenotype assessed via the HTP assay. The cell response to the glycoconjugates was then validated to be CLR mediated and the DC response to glycan modality was modeled in another general linear model. Results from these studies show that highly cationized high density glycoconjugates presented from non-phagocytosable flat well display modulate DC phenotype toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype to the greatest extent. Additionally, significant impacts on DC phenotype in response to adsorbed conjugates can be seen when grouping glycan structure by terminal glycan motif. Finally, DC response to glycoconjugates were found to be CLR mediated and that each modality of glycan display is significantly different, in terms of DC phenotype, from the others. These results provide indications for the future design of glycan microarray systems, biomaterials and combination products. Furthermore, this work indicates that different mechanisms are involved in binding and processing of surface bound versus soluble glycoconjugates. With further study these differences could be harnessed for use in the next generation of biomaterials.

Les lectines de type-C (CLR) sont des protéines de liaison au glycane qui reconnaissent les sucres de manière dépendante du Ca2+. Ils ont des rôles divers dans l'organisme humain. Ils sont responsables des interactions et de l'internalisation d'agents pathogènes tels que Candida albicans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, le VIH ou le virus Ebola. Ils sont également impliqués dans le développement ou la prévention du cancer par la reconnaissance de glycanes spécifiques exprimés à la surface des cellules tumorales.L'importance cruciale est de trouver des ligands pour les CLR qui induiront une réponse immunitaire ou des inhibiteurs pour les lectines impliquées dans la promotion des infections dans l'organisme. L'objectif du réseau IMMUNOSHAPE était d'examiner de près les rôles, les spécificités et les différences entre les CLR et d'essayer de trouver des molécules appropriées pour stimuler la réponse immunitaire. Au cours de cette thèse, les néoglycoprotéines (NGP) contenant des glycodendrons de différentes valences ont été synthétisées. Pour la synthèse ont été utilisés BSA et OVA comme porteurs de protéines sur lesquels sont couplés des composés monovalents et des dendrons avec αMan et Manα1-2Man de trois et neuf valences. Tous les NGP ont été synthétisés par la chimie click avec deux équivalents de glycodendron / BSA. De plus, des NGP avec des glycomimétiques sur la base de fucose et de Manα1-2Man ont été préparés.L'affinité des molécules synthétisées a été analysée avec GLYcoPROFILE, la plateforme technologique développée par GLYcoDiag dans le but de mieux étudier les interactions glycobiologiques. Il a été évalué que tous les composés testés présentaient un effet multivalent fort sur quatre lectines spécifiques du mannose, y compris deux CLR : DC-SIGN et Langerin. La néoglycoprotéine avec 11 dendrons Manaαl-2 Man nonavalés a obtenu la meilleure avidité pour toutes les lectines testées. Les IC50 obtenues pour la Langerine et le DC-SIGN sont respectivement de l’ordre du nanomolaire et picomolaire, c’est une des valeurs les plus faibles obtenues pour ces deux lectines.L'étude des interactions glycobiologiques a été élargie par l'analyse des différences entre les glycanes avec les liaisons O, C et S et leurs interactions avec les lectines. Il a été observé que les C-glycanes n'ont pas le même mode de liaison que les O-glycanes et, par la suite, ne présentent pas le même effet multivalent attendu, que les O-glycanes. Dans le contexte des glycosides, nous montrons que l’O-glucoside présente de meilleures interactions avec les lectines purifiées que le S-glucoside, tandis que le S-galactoside offre une inhibition significativement meilleure entre les kératinocytes humains normaux et les néoglycoprotéines correspondantes. En outre, une étude intéressante a porté sur les interactions entre les thio-sialosides et la sialidase NanA. Cette analyse a montré que la multivalence a un effet important non seulement sur la lectine, mais également sur la liaison de l’enzyme. Les NGP synthétiques thio-sialylés ont mis en évidence un inhibiteur multivalent efficace de l'enzyme NanA.Au final, cette thèse présente des résultats intéressants sur l'influence significative des composés multivalents sur les interactions glycobiologiques entre les glycanes et les lectines ainsi que sur les enzymes. Cette connaissance pourrait être utilisée dans la conception future des vaccins et de leurs adjuvants pour le traitement des infections,du cancer et, en général, pour la formation de la réponse immunitaire. / C-type lectins (CLRs) are glycan binding proteins which recognize sugars in Ca2+ dependent manner. They have diverse roles in human organism. They are responsible for interactions and internalization of pathogens like Candida albicans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, HIV or Ebola virus. They are also involved in development or prevention of cancer through recognition of specific glycans expressed on surface of tumor cells.The crucial importance is to find ligands for CLRs which will induce immune response or inhibitors for lectins which are involved in promotion of infections in organism. The goal of IMMUNOSHAPE network was to closely examine roles, specificities and differences between CLRs and try to find appropriate molecules for driving immune response. During this thesis, neoglycoproteins (NGPs) containing glycodendrons with different valences were synthetized. For synthesis were used BSA and OVA as protein carriers on which are coupled monovalent compounds and dendrons with αMan and Manα1-2Man in three and nine valences. All NGPs were synthetized with click chemistry with two ratios of glycodendron/BSA. Additionally, NGPs with glycomimetics on the basis of fucose and Manα1-2Man were prepared.The affinity of synthetized molecules was analyzed with GLYcoPROFILE, technology platform developed in GLYcoDiag with the aim of better and more precise investigation of glycobiological interactions. It was evaluated that all tested compounds showed strong multivalent effect on four mannose specific lectins, including two CLRs: DC-SIGN and Langerin. Neoglycoprotein with 11 nonavalent Manα1-2Man dendrons achieved the best avidity for all tested lectins. Obtained IC50 for Langerin and DC-SIGN are of nanomolar and picomolar range respectively, which are one of the lowest values obtained for these two lectins.Studying glycobiological interactions was expanded by analysis of differences between glycans with O-, C- and S-linkage and their interactions with lectins. It was observed that C-glycans does not have the same mode of binding like O-glycans and subsequently, do not show the same expected multivalent effect such as O-glycans. In the context of glycosides, we show that even O-glucoside achieved slithly better interactions with purified lectins in comparison with S-glucoside, S-galactoside provide significantly better inhibition between normal human keratinocytes and corresponding neoglycoproteins in comparison with O-galactoside. Furthermore, interesting study was investigation of interactions between thio-sialosides and sialidase NanA. This analysis showed that multivalency has a strong effect not only on lectin, but also on enzyme binding. Synthetized thio-sialylated NGPs showed as efficient, multivalent inhibitor of NanA enzyme.Altogether, this thesis presents interesting results of significant influence of multivalent compounds on glycobiological interactions between glycans and lectins as well as enzymes. This knowledge could be used in future design of vaccines and their adjuvants for infection and cancer treatment and in general, for shaping immune response.