Phloridzin, an antidiabetic and antineoplastic agent usually found in fruit trees, is a dihydrochalcone constituent that has a clinical/pharmaceutical significance as a sodiumglucose linked transport 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. Phloridzin never experienced widespread clinical usage in the pharmaceutical market due to its side effects and poor bioavailability when compared to other antidiabetic therapeutics. The poor bioavailability is primarily attributed to the degradation of the glycosidic bond of the phloridzin, resulting in the formation of phloretin, the aglycone of phloridzin and glucose. While phloretin displays a reduced capacity of SGLT2 inhibition, this nutraceutical shows enhanced antineoplastic activity in comparison to phloridzin. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been explored in improving the bioavailability of many drugs and therefore we opt for gold nanoparticle mediated delivery of phloridzin and phloretin and exploration of their anticancer mechanism. In this study, we have synthesized phloridzin and phloretin conjugated gold nanoparticles (Phl-AuNP and Pht-AuNP) in a single-step, rapid, biofriendly processes. The synthesized AuNPs morphology and elemental composition was characterized via transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopyenergy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Assessment of the antineoplastic potency of the dihydrochalcone-conjugated AuNPs against cancerous cell lines was accomplished through monitoring via flow cytometry. We posit that the functionalization of these chalcones onto the gold nanoparticles’ surface has improved the pharmacokinetic profile of phloridzin and phloretin.

L'identification de nouveaux agents anti-infectieux, actifs contre les pathogènes et les micro-organismes multi-résistants, reste un enjeu majeur pour la science. Parmi les molécules développées pour combattre ces infections, les peptides thérapeutiques apparaissent comme un champ prometteur de recherche. Ils se synthétisent rapidement, grâce à la synthèse sur support solide automatisée, et leur structure modulable facilite la découverte et l'amélioration d'activités biologiques. Le principal inconvénient des peptides est leur manque de résistance face à la dégradation protéolytique, et donc leur rapide élimination du corps humain. L'introduction d'aminoacides modifiés, comme les aza-bêta³-aminoacides, au sein de la séquence peptidique, permet de renforcer la biodisponibilité de ces peptides, et peut conduire à une augmentation de l’activité biologique et/ou de la sélectivité. Les aza-bêta3-aminoacides sont des analogues aza des bêta³-aminoacides, où le carbone portant la chaîne latérale est remplacé par un atome d'azote chiral à configuration non-fixée. Introduit au sein d'une séquence peptidique, ces monomères donnent accès à des pseudopeptides dont la biodisponibilité est augmentée, et l’activité et/ou la sélectivité peuvent être améliorée. Ce mémoire de thèse présente la synthèse et la fonctionnalisation d’aza-bêta³-aminoacides, à chaînes latérales protéinogènes ou non, en vue de leur insertion en synthèse peptidique sur support solide. Deux séries de pseudopeptides cycliques de novo ont été développées. La première série cible les vésicules d’endocytose résultant d’une infection adénovirale, et la seconde série mime la séquence RGD, ligand des intégrines alpha-nu-bêta₃, qui est une cible d’intérêt contre la néo-angiogénèse tumorale. / Discovering new anti-pathogenic agent, which are effective against new or multi-drug resistant microorganisms, is still a major challenge for science. Among all the drugs, which are currently developed to fight these infections, therapeutic peptides arise as a promising research field. Their synthesis is fast, due to automated solid phase synthesis, and their adjustable structure makes the discovery and the enhancement of biological activities easier. The main drawback of peptides is their lack of resistance against proteolytic degradation, and therefore their quick elimination from the human body. Modification of peptide sequence, by introduction of aminoacids analogues, such as aza-bêta3-aminoacids, reinforces the peptide bioavailability, and can lead to an increase of the biological activity, and/or of the selectivity. Aza-bêta3-amino acids are aza analogues of bêta3-amino acids, where the side chain is carried by a chiral nitrogen atom, with a non-fixed configuration. Their introduction in a peptide sequence affords pseudopeptides, with a better bioavailability, and with an activity/selectivity which could be increased. This report describes the synthesis of aza-bêta3-aminoacids, with proteinogenic side chains or not, in order to insert them in solid phase peptide synthesis. Two sets of cyclic pseudopeptides de novo have been developed. The first one targets endocytosis vesicles, resulting from an adenoviral infection, and the second one copies the RGD sequence, ligand of alpha-nu- bêta₃ integrins, which is one the main targets against the tumorous neo-angiogenesis.

Natural products are a rich source of lead compounds for treatment of cancer as well as other diseases. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, as part of their continuing effort to discover anticancer agents from natural sources, created the 60 human tumor cell-line anticancer screen to test natural products for their potential against various types of cancer. Through this screening process a family of natural products called schweinfurthins was discovered to possess potent and differential activity. Of potentially great significance, the pattern of activity that the schweinfurthins displayed in the screen does not correlate with any currently used anticancer drug, indicating that the schweinfurthins likely act via a previously unknown mechanism or on a novel target. Our group has synthesized many of the natural schweinfurthins as well as numerous analogues in an effort to probe the pharmacophore and gain understanding of the key features that are important for potency as well as differential activity. During the course of these studies, it was discovered that the right-half of the molecule is most amenable for modifications. One potential modification to the schweinfurthins is to replace the resorcinol substructure seen in the right-half of the natural product with a heteroaromatic moiety such as a benzofuran or indole system. This change may produce analogues that are potentially more active, that contain motifs that are seen in many therapeutic drugs, and that have improved chemical stability relative to the natural products. With this goal in mind benzofuran and indole containing schweinfurthin analogues were synthesized. Once these compounds were prepared, it was found that such modifications were welltolerated, and in the case of the indole analogues activity in the 60 cell-line screen was equivalent to the corresponding natural product. In an effort to improve that activity, prenyl and geranyl side chains were added to the indole system, at both the C-2 and C-3 positions, to better match the structure of the natural schweinfurthins. In addition, analogues methylated selectively on the indole nitrogen or phenol were synthesized to improve stability. The impact of those modifications on the activity was tested, and potent compounds were found. The left-half of the schweinfurthins is prepared via a Lewis acid mediated cascade of a geranyl epoxide. The protecting group that is typically employed on the terminating phenol, a methoxymethyl ether or MOM group, is cleaved during the reaction. In the past preparation of an analogue that lacked a substituent at the C-5 position, it was found that the MOM cation released during the cyclization would participate in an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction at the neighbouring position which resulted in the formation of a benzyl methyl ether. In order to probe the scope of this reaction and its potential utility in the synthesis of natural products, several geranyl epoxides with various "protecting groups" on the phenol were prepared and subjected to the cyclization conditions. These investigations have established that stabilization of the liberated cation determines the likelihood and regioselectivity of a tandem electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction.

Synthesizing bioactive small molecules by structural modification of 1,4-naphthoquinone was the primary goal of this research. Several bioactive compounds with anticancer, antifungal, and antibacterial activities were synthesized. All the synthetic protocols were optimized in such ways that do not require cumbersome purification. First, a new protocol for the synthesis of NQM111 was developed. NQM111 is a highly potent anticancer agent developed in our laboratory, but the old protocol does not provide enough quantity for in vivo study. Therefore, a new safe and improved method was developed which provides enough quantity for in vivo study. The second project involves the synthesis of 1,4-naphthoquinone conjugated with an aromatic group. These compounds are a highly potent anticancer agent with ~8-fold selectivity towards cancer cell lines than the non-cancer cell line. A mode of action study of this compound was identified, and it was observed that these compounds generate reactive oxygen species,which triggers apoptosis. The final project involves the synthesis of 1,4-naphthoquinone based antifungal, and antibacterial compounds. These compounds are multi-cationic in nature with a hydrophobic tail. Six different analogs with varying hydrophobic tails were synthesized and tested for their antibacterial and antifungal activity. These compounds showed excellent activity against wide range of fungi including resistant strains.

N-Thiolated β-lactams (1) represent a promising new group of compounds with potent inhibition effects on bacteria, like Bacillus anthracis and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and onco-systems, like breast cancer and leukemia. Originally developed as part of a synthetic pathway to bicyclic lactams, N-thiolated β-lactams have been shown in this laboratory to possess intriguing biological activities. The antibacterial activities of this new class of agents rely on novel structural features unlike those of any existing family of β-lactam drugs. The lactams seem to exert their effects intracellularly, requiring passage of the bioactive species through the cellular membrane, rather than acting extracellularly on cell wall components in the manner of penicillin and related antibiotics. The lipophilic nature of these molecules, which lack the polar side chain functionality of all other microbially-active β-lactams, suggests the compounds do not target the penicillin binding proteins within bacterial membranes but instead pass through these membranes. The biological target of these compounds has been investigated. The most active members of this β-lactam class appear to be those bearing a small branched alkyl chain on the sulfur atom. The effects of stereochemistry, branching and chain length of the sulfur group on bioactivities were studied. This dissertation is divided into six chapters. A review of organosulfur anti-infectives is discussed in Chapter 1. The types of existing antibiotics and their modes of action will be discussed in Chapter 2. The synthesis of these novel agents is discussed in Chapter 3. A structure-activity relationship of these lactam analogues is discussed in Chapter 4. And Chapters 5 and 6 demonstrate a novel mode of action and biological target for these drugs using techniques which include target identification, metabolic effects, and reactivity kinetics.

Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) play a very important role in biological functions and therefore the inhibition of specific Protein-Protein Interactions has a huge therapeutic value. The most successful small molecular PPIs inhibitors do not fit with the prevalent `Rule of Five' drug profile. To overcome the disadvantages of small molecular PPIs inhibitors, peptide based PPIs inhibitors were developed. Herein we describe the development of a new class of peptidomimetics AA-peptides. The AApeptides were designed based on chiral PNA backbone. Substitution of nucleobases yields AApeptides that are resistant to proteolysis and capable of mimicking peptides. Two types of AApeptides were discussed in this dissertation "α-AApeptides" and "γ-AApeptides". The AApeptides were shown to disrupt p53/MDM2 protein-protein interaction and tomimic fMLF tripeptide to target G protein-coupled formyl peptide receptors (FPRs). Moreover, the lipidated α-AApeptides can mimic the structure and function of natural antimicrobial lipopeptides and show broad-spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Lastly I have designed and synthesized a serials of phosphopeptides to disrupt cancer related STAT3-STAT3 dimerization.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / The present study deals with the synthesis and characterization of six tri-palladium complexes code named MH3, MH4, MH5, MH6, MH7 and MH8 that contained two planaramine ligands bound to the central or each of the terminal metal ions. The activity of the compounds against human cancer cell lines: A2780, A2780cisR and A2780ZD0473R, cell uptake, levels of DNA-binding and nature of interaction with salmon sperm and pBR322 plasmid DNA have also been determined. Whereas cisplatin binds with DNA forming mainly intrastrand GG adduct that causes local bending of a DNA strand, the tri-palladium complexes are expected to bind with DNA forming a number of long-range interstrand GG adducts that would cause a global change in DNA conformation. Among the designed complexes, MH6 that has two 2-hydroxypyridine ligands bound to each of the two terminal palladium ions is found to be most active. The compound also has the highest cell uptake and Pd-DNA binding levels. In contrast, MH8 which has two 4-hydroxypyridine ligands bound to each of the two terminal palladium ions is found to be least active. The results indicate that, as applied to the terminal metal centres, 2-hydroxypyridine would be more activating than 4-hydroxypyridine perhaps because of greater protection provided to the terminal centres from coming in contact with the solvent molecules. In contrast, when bound to the central metal centre, 4-hydroxypyridine appears to play a slightly greater activating role than 2-hydroxypyridine or 3-hydroxypyridine, suggesting that non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding associated with the ligand rather than its steric effect may be a more important determinant of antitumour property. The results illustrate structure-activity relationships and suggest that the tri-palladium complex containing two 2-hydroxypyridine ligands bound to each of the three metal centres or the compound that contains two 2-hydroxypyridine ligands bound to each of the two terminal metal centres and two 4-hydroxypyridine ligands bound to the central metal centre, may be much more active than any of the designed complexes.

This thesis reports a study of the chemical stability and coordination chemistry of several antitumour metallocenes Cp2MCl2 (Cp = h5-C5H5; M = Ti 1, V 2, Nb 3, Mo 4), as well as derivatives of Cp2TiCl2 1, with nucleic acids, nucleic acid constituents and proteins. These studies were carried out in order to identify the biologically active species and more fully understand the molecular level mechanism of action of the antitumour metallocenes, in particular Cp2TiCl2 1, which is currently undergoing phase II clinical trials. The interactions of Cp2MoCl2 4 with four oligonucleotides were studied by 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy. In 50 mM salt solutions of Cp2MoCl2 4, hydrolysis of the halide ligands occurred to give a solution with pD -2, containing a species in which both Cp rings remain metal bound for 24 h. At pD -7, partial hydrolysis of the Cp rings (-30percent) occurred after 24 h. Addition of an aqueous solution of Cp2MoCl2 4 in 50 mM salt to the self-complementary sequence d(CGCATATGCG)2, maintaining the pD at 6.0-7.0, showed no evidence for the formation of a metallocene-oligonucleotide complex and only peaks arising from hydrolysis of Cp2MoCl2 4 were detected. A similar result was obtained in titration experiments with the single stranded sequence d(ATGGTA) at pD 6.5-7.0. However, at pD 3.0, new signals assigned to a molybdocene-oligonucleotide complex(es), which was stable for hours at pD 3.0, were detected; while at pD -7 the complex is destabilised and only peaks arising from hydrolysis of Cp2MoCl2 4 were detected. Titration experiments at low pD with Cp2MoCl2 4 and the dinucleotide dCG were consistent with formation of a complex arising due to coordination of molybdenum to guanine N7 and/or cytosine N3. The results obtained showed that stable oligonucleotide adducts were not formed in 50 mM salt at pD -7 and hence it is highly unlikely that formation of molybdocene-DNA adducts in vivo is the primary action that is responsible for the antitumour properties of Cp2MoCl2 4. The rate of hydrolysis of the aromatic rings of Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1, OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) and the dimethylsubstituted derivatives (MeCp)2TiX2 (X equals Cl 34, OCOCH2NH3Cl 41), in aqueous solutions at pD 2-8 was studied by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Rapid hydrolysis of both the halide/glycine and Cp ligands in Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1, OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) occurred and predominantly gave a precipitate at pD -7. In contrast, under the same experimental conditions, the predominant species present in aqueous solutions of (MeCp)2TiX2 (X equals Cl 34, OCOCH2NH3Cl 41) at pH 2-8 contained both MeCp rings metal bound. At pD < 5, Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1, OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) and (MeCp)2TiX2 (X equals Cl 34, OCOCH2NH3Cl 41) formed similar complex(es) with purine nucleotides. However, at pD >5, stable adducts between nucleotides and Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1, OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) were not formed. In contrast, (MeCp)2TiX2 (X equals Cl 34, OCOCH2NH3Cl 41) formed complex(es) with 5'-dAMP or 5'-dGMP, which were stable for 24 h. These results suggest that formation of stable chelates between (MeCp)2TiX2 (X equals Cl 34, OCOCH2NH3Cl 41) and nucleic acid constituents in vivo is possible. However, the methyl substituted derivatives 34 and 41 did not show any antitumour activity against EAT in mice when administered in either 10percentDMSO/90percentsaline or in water at pH 6.2-6.4, which suggests that the labile Cp-Ti bond present in Cp2TiCl2 1 is required for antitumour activity. The synthesis of a range of Cp substituted titanocene derivatives was investigated in an attempt to prepare derivatives with modified Cp stability in comparison to the methyl substituted derivatives. The synthesis of derivatives (CpCH2Y)2TiCl2 where Y equals ?CHO 43, ?CONMe2 44, ?NO2 45, (RCp)2TiCl2 where R equals ?COMe 46, ?COOMe 47 or ?CONMe2 48, (CpNMe2)2TiCl2 62 and (Cp(CH2)2NMe2)2TiCl2 63 was unsuccessful, due to the presence of coordinating substituents on the Cp rings and poor stability in polar, protic solvents. Hence, these derivatives were excluded from further studies. The rate of hydrolysis of the Cp rings of Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1, OCOCCl3 22 and OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) in aqueous solutions, 10percentDMSO/90percentD2O and 100percent DMSO was monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Rapid hydrolysis of both the carboxylate and Cp ligands of Cp2TiX2 (OCOCCl3 22 and OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) occurred in DMSO to give biologically inactive species. The rate of these reactions were concentration dependent as dilution of these samples with saline or water to give the therapeutic conditions of 10percentDMSO/90percentD2O slowed the hydrolysis chemistry. In contrast, samples of Cp2TiX2 (X equals Cl 1 and OCOCH2NH3Cl 27) dissolved in water, gave solutions containing the presumed antitumour active species in which the halide or glycine ligands have been hydrolysed but the Cp rings remain metal bound. Thus, charged X ligands may be incorporated into Cp2TiX2 and will give comparable activity to Cp2TiCl2 1 provided the samples are administered in water. The antitumour metallocenes Cp2MCl2 (M equals Ti 1, V 2, Nb 3, Mo 4) and the inactive derivative (MeCp)2TiCl2 34 were found to inhibit the relaxation of supercoiled plasmid DNA pBR322 by human topoisomerase II in vitro. These results implicated the inhibition of topoisomerase II in the mechanism of antitumour activity although there was no direct correlation between the in vitro results with biological activity against EAT in vivo. UV spectroscopy confirmed that the metallocenes Cp2MCl2 (M equals Ti 1, Mo 4) became associated with and were stabilised to hydrolysis by calf thymus DNA but not with human serum albumin. ICP-AES was used to measure the amount of metal associated with either DNA or human serum albumin after incubation with Cp2MCl2 (M equals Ti 1, Nb 3, Mo 4) and dialysis of these solution. The results confirmed that DNA stabilises or becomes associated with the metallocenes. However, errors associated with the ICP-AES measurements did not allow these results to be quantified. 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to show that the antitumour metallocene Cp2MoCl2 4 formed an adduct with glutathione 72 in the pH range 3-7 through the sulfur donor group. In comparison, the antitumour metallocenes Cp2MCl2 (M equals Ti 1, Nb 3) showed limited adduct formation with glutathione 72 at pH -3 and no adducts were detected at pH > 5.5.

Studies of submillimeter gels composed of covalently cross-linked poly(acrylic acid)-g-poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (Pluronic-PAA) networks are reviewed in light of potential applications of the microgels as drug carriers in oral delivery. The microgels are capable of volumetric transitions in response to environmental stimulae such as pH and temperature. It is shown that the type of Pluronic used in the microgel synthesis changes the structure of the resulting microgels, with the more hydrophobic Pluronic imparting porosity. Microgels based on Pluronic L92 (L92-PAA-EGDMA) possess higher ion-exchange capacity than microgels based on Pluronic F127 (F127-PAA-EGDMA), albeit the former are more hydrophobic. Analogously, more hydrophobic but heterogeneous L92-PAA-EGDMA exhibit superior capacity for equilibrium loading of hydrophobic drugs such as taxol, camptothecin and steroid hormones, as well as higher capacity for weakly basic drugs such as doxorubicin, mitomycin C, and mitoxantrone. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Doxorubicin (DOX) and Pluronic-PAA interaction was investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). DOX/polymer interaction is governed primarily by electrostatic interaction. The uptake of DOX results in the formation of insoluble polymer/DOX complex. Addition of salt weakens the interaction of drug and polymer by charge shielding effect between positive ionized amino group on DOX and oppositely charged polymer chains. However high drug-loading capacity in high salt condition implied that self-association property of DOX also play a role in the drug loading process. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)