As funções abrangentes e complexas de carboidratos nos sistemas biológicos oferecem muitas possibilidades para explorar essas estruturas no desenvolvimento de estratégias terapêuticas. Como consequência de sua estrutura e função, algumas glicosidases e glicosiltransferases envolvidas em patologias significativas como diabetes e doença de Chagas são alvos interessantes na busca por inibidores enzimáticos baseados em carboidratos. Assim, o conhecimento de características estruturais e mecanismo de ação de ?- e ?-glucosidases e trans-sialidases e as sólidas evidências de que glicosidases são sensíveis a efeito de multivalência sustentaram o planejamento de glycoclusters potencialmente inibidores dessas enzimas contendo três, quatro ou seis unidades correlatas aos seus substratos naturais (glicose e galactose/ácido siálico). Adicionalmente foram propostos glycoclusters baseados na estrutura do glicoaminoácido ?-GalNAc-O-Thr. Empregando reações de cicloadição CuAAC, treze dos dezesseis glycoclusters tetra- e hexavalentes inicialmente propostos foram obtidos em bons rendimentos, sendo 8 derivados de glicose, 4 de galactose e o derivado tetravalente de ácido siálico 7. Dez desses compostos são inéditos na literatura. Com a finalidade de gerar diversidade estrutural o derivado trivalente 29 foi preparado e permitiu o acoplamento de um imino-açúcar D-gluco ou L-gulo DNJ a estruturas trivalentes de glicose. A mesma estratégia levou à obtenção do glycocluster 85, contendo unidades de galactose e um resíduo de ácido siálico. Ensaios de cinética em ?-glucosidases de arroz e Saccharomyces cerevisiae e ?-glucosidase de amêndoas com os glycoclusters derivados de glicose 1-4, 9-12 e 63-66 mostraram atividade interessante apenas para os compostos mistos, evidenciando a importância do imino-açúcar para a interação com essas enzimas. No que diz respeito aos derivados multivalentes de galactose e/ou ácido siálico 5-7, 13, 14 e 85, inibição expressiva da enzima TcTS foi alcançada pelo derivado 7 (IC50 450 ?M). Ensaios de atividade tripanocida, bloqueio de invasão e citotoxicidade sobre fibroblastos de mamífero não-infectados cultivados in vitro evidenciaram atividade de todos esses compostos contra a forma amastigota e bloqueio de invasão celular por T. cruzi (diminuindo a infecção em concentrações de até 25?M). / The comprehensive and elaborate functions of carbohydrates in biological systems offer countless possibilities to apply these structures in the development of therapeutic strategies. Because of their structure and function, some glycosidases and glycosyltransferases involved in pathological conditions such as diabetes and Chagas disease are interesting targets in the search for carbohydrate-based enzyme inhibitors. Thus, the knowledge of structural features and the mechanism of action of ?- and ?-glucosidases and trans-sialidases, combined with strong evidences that glycosidases are sensitive to multivalent effect, have supported the design of substrate-based glycoclusters with potential glycosidases inhibitory properties. In addition, glycoclusters based on the structure of the ?-GalNAc-O-Thr glycoamino acid have been planned. Using CuAAC cycloaddition reactions, thirteen of the sixteen tetra- and hexavalent glycoclusters were obtained in good yields, being 8 glucose derivatives, 4 galactose, and the tetravalent sialic acid derivative 7. Ten of these compounds are unpublished. In order to generate structural diversity, the trivalent block 29 was prepared and allowed the coupling of trivalent glucose clusters to iminosugars D-gluco or L-gulo DNJ isomers. The same strategy afforded glycocluster 85, containing galactose units and a sialic acid residue. Kinetic assays in ? and ?-glucosidases with the glucose-derived glycoclusters 1-4, 9-12 and 63-66 showed interesting activity only for the heteroclusters compounds, evidencing the relevance of iminosugars for the interaction with these enzymes. Regarding galactose and/or sialic acid cluster 5-7, 13, 14 and 85, significant inhibition of the TcTS enzyme was achieved by derivative 7 (IC50 450 ?M). In vitro assays for trypanocidal activity and cytotoxicity showed good results for of all these compounds. They appear to block host cell invasion by T. cruzi (reducing infection index in concentrations up to 25?M).

Les premiers iminosucres multivalents rapportés dans la littérature datent de 1999. Depuis, c’est plus d’une centaine de clusters de ce type qui ont été synthétisés et décrits une quarantaine de publications. L’obtention d’un premier effet multivalent fort sur une glycosidase, en 2010, a initié de nouveaux travaux visant à étudier et à comprendre son mécanisme et ses limites. Dans cette optique le présent travail de thèse a exploité plusieurs approches. La première partie décrit la synthèse de dendrons "cliquables" permettant de multiplier par trois ou par neuf la valence initiale des plateformes utilisées. La deuxième est une étude de la synthèse d’espaceurs rigides. La troisième est la préparation de plateformes modulables, des neo-cyclodextrines, pour obtenir un contrôle plus fin de la topologie des clusters. L’association de dendrons "cliquables" et de plateformes cyclopeptoïdes de dimensions contrôlées a abouti à un résultat sans précèdent en termes d’effet multivalent. Ainsi, le cluster 36-valent à ligands DNJ est un inhibiteur 170 000 fois plus fort que l’analogue monovalent correspondant sur l’alpha-mannosidase des pois sabre blanc (Jack Bean). / The first multivalent iminosugars were published in 1999. From this date, it’s more than a hundred of clusters that were synthesized and presented in about forty publications. In 2010, the first strong multivalent effect in glycosidase inhibition was obtained and prompted further studies of its mechanism and its limits. To reach these goals, this PhD work has developed different strategies. The first was to synthesize "clickable" dendrons which can lead to a multiplication of the initial valency of our scaffolds by three or by nine. The second approach was a study to obtain rigid linkers. The third one was the preparation of modular scaffolds, neo-cyclodextrins, in order to finely tune the topology of the resulting clusters. The combination of our "clickable" dendrons with cyclopeptoid scaffolds gave an unprecedented multivalent effect on glycosidase inhibition. The 36-valent DNJ-based cluster is indeed a 170 000-fold more potent inhibitor than the corresponding monovalent control for Jack Bean alpha-mannosidase.