Les copolymères à blocs représentent de bons candidats pour des applications biomédicales, notamment pour l’encapsulation et le relargage contrôlé de médicaments. Depuis quelques années, les équipes de recherche tentent de concevoir des nanoparticules fonctionnelles « sur mesure » de façon à augmenter leur efficacité en tant que nano-vecteurs. C’est dans ce contexte que s’est s’inscrit ce travail dont le but est de concevoir des copolymères à blocs multi-stimulables en vue d’obtenir des nano-objets adaptatifs en milieu aqueux, capables d’encapsuler des molécules actives et de les relarguer de manière contrôlée en jouant sur différents paramètres extérieurs (pH, T...). Ce manuscrit traite en premier lieu d’une nouvelle stratégie de synthèse des copolymères à blocs stimulables “hybrides”, c’est à dire comprenant un bloc vinylique stimulable et un bloc peptidique. Celle-ci, fondée sur le couplage par « chimie click » d’homopolymères fonctionnalisés eux-mêmes obtenus par polymérisation « vivante / contrôlée », s’est révélée très efficace pour l’obtention de copolymères de structure moléculaire très bien définie. . L'autre partie, dédiée à l'étude complète du comportement en milieu aqueux des copolymères à blocs “hybrides”, en fonction de divers paramètres extérieurs (pH, T), illustre leurs propriétés singulières d’auto-assemblage. Ils forment, en effet, une multitude de morphologies différentes mises en évidence par des techniques de caractérisation complémentaires. Cette partie traite également de l’incorporation de particules magnétiques au sein des nanoparticules polymères, afin de concevoir des nano-vecteurs utilisables pour l’imagerie médicale ou pour leurs propriétés d’hyperthermie. Ce projet ambitieux, croisant les concepts de l’auto-assemblage, de l’ingénierie macromoléculaire, de l’encapsulation, des systèmes hybrides organique-inorganique et des systèmes stimulables, constitue une thématique de recherche novatrice. / Abstract

The conjugation of a small organic molecule to synthetic polypeptides from a designed set has been shown to give rise to binders with high affinity and selectivity for the phosphorylated model proteins α-casein and β-casein but not for ovoalbumin. The small organic molecule that was used for this purpose is comprised of two di-(2-picolyl)amine groups assembled on a dimethylphenyl scaffold, and is capable of complexing two Zn2+ ions to form chelates that bind the phosphate ion. The designed polypeptides used for binder construction have no precedence in nature and do not show any prior selectivity favouring any single protein. The polypeptide conjugate binders showed high affinity towards the model protein α-casein, the binder molecule 4C15L8-PP1 bound α-casein with a dissociation constant KD of 17 nM, although the di-(2-picolyl) amine based chelate in the presence of Zn2+ bound phosphate ion with dissociation constants in the low mM range. The observed affinity is due to interactions between the Zn2+ chelate and the phosphate groups of α-casein and also to interactions between the polypeptide scaffold and α-casein. The binder was found to selectively extract α-casein from buffer, bovine milk and human serum spiked with α-casein. The flexible construction of the binder permits for flexible modifications like attachment of fluorophores for titrations and quantifications. The binders were shown to efficiently capture α-casein from human serum when immobilized on solid support in a continuous flow system and to release the captured α-casein upon a simple change of pH using 0.1% acqueous trifluoroacetica acid. The developed technology brings new opportunities in investigating posttranslational phosphorylation events that are involved in signaling cascades and triggering many biologically relevant functions. A new chemical linker technology has also been developed for the purpose of conjugating biomolecules taking advantage of amino groups for the conjugation. By combining two esters with different reactivities, separated by an aliphatic chain, a molecular tool was developed that allows for controlled conjugation of biomolecules. The two esters react at different rates and can therefore be separated and allowed to react under different conditions in each step, thereby allowing for selective linkage formation between the subunits. The size of the spacer can be varied by selecting the appropriate dicarboxylic acid. The developed technology was shown to provide specificity in heteroconjugate formation in the assembly of a variety of heteroconjugates where polypeptides were combined with other peptides, carbohydrates and proteins.

Porcine <i>Circovirus</i> 2 (PCV2) associated diseases (PCVAD) cause economic loss to the global swine industry. Control measures for PCVAD largely depend on the use of PCV2 vaccines. The available commercial PCV2 vaccines contain either inactivated whole virus particles or recombinant PCV2 capsid protein. These preparations most likely contain varying amounts of immune-irrelevant proteins that can cause adverse injection site reactions, with compromised efficacy due to alteration of protective immune epitopes arising during the viral inactivation process. Other constraints include high production cost attributed to propagation of slow growing virus and expression and extraction of recombinant proteins, a requirement for adjuvants, and the induction of a Th2-biased immune response. Hence, development of new PCV2 vaccines is necessary.<p> There are two recommended PCV2 vaccination strategies. They are i. vaccinating sows, which relies on the passive transfer of maternal immunity to offspring, and ii. immunizing young piglets to induce an active immune response. The piglet vaccination has been shown to confer better protection from mortality. Maternal antibody interference to the induction of an active immune response is an obstacle when piglets are vaccinated at an early age. Can we sidestep this maternal antibody interference? To address this issue, I investigated whether a prototypical PCV2 vaccine, parenterally administered, could override maternally-derived PCV2 antibodies in seropositive piglets. The results of this study were not conclusive. However, they laid the foundation for future studies based upon using varying levels of vaccine antigen with different adjuvants, and administered to piglets with defined maternally derived PCV2 antibodies.<p> Subsequently, I examined if a new PCV2 vaccine candidate comprised of bacteriophage lambda particles displaying part of the PCV2 capsid protein could induce anti-PCV2 immunity. Initial experiments showed that pigs do not have pre-existing anti-lambda antibodies and thus will not neutralize display particles used as a vaccine at primary vaccination. I produced and characterized lambda phage particles displaying four immunodominant regions of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) capsid protein fused to the lambda capsid protein D i.e., D-CAP, phage display particles. Expression of D-CAP in <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) and its presence in the vaccine preparation was shown by ELISA and Western blots using anti-PCV2 polyclonal antiserum from a gnotobiotic pig. The vaccine, lambda particles displaying PCV2 capsid protein immunogenic epitopes fused to lambda D protein (LDP-D-CAP), administered without an adjuvant induced both humoral and cellular immunity to PCV2 in conventional pigs, as shown by ELISA, Western blots, virus neutralization assay and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions. This work produced the first potential phage vaccine to PCV2. In order to further investigate the feasibility of using the lambda display technology. I produced and characterized two additional lambda display particle preparations, LDP-D-FLAG and LDP-D-GFP, displaying a FLAG tag and the green fluorescent proteins, respectively.

Porcine <i>Circovirus</i> 2 (PCV2) associated diseases (PCVAD) cause economic loss to the global swine industry. Control measures for PCVAD largely depend on the use of PCV2 vaccines. The available commercial PCV2 vaccines contain either inactivated whole virus particles or recombinant PCV2 capsid protein. These preparations most likely contain varying amounts of immune-irrelevant proteins that can cause adverse injection site reactions, with compromised efficacy due to alteration of protective immune epitopes arising during the viral inactivation process. Other constraints include high production cost attributed to propagation of slow growing virus and expression and extraction of recombinant proteins, a requirement for adjuvants, and the induction of a Th2-biased immune response. Hence, development of new PCV2 vaccines is necessary.<p> There are two recommended PCV2 vaccination strategies. They are i. vaccinating sows, which relies on the passive transfer of maternal immunity to offspring, and ii. immunizing young piglets to induce an active immune response. The piglet vaccination has been shown to confer better protection from mortality. Maternal antibody interference to the induction of an active immune response is an obstacle when piglets are vaccinated at an early age. Can we sidestep this maternal antibody interference? To address this issue, I investigated whether a prototypical PCV2 vaccine, parenterally administered, could override maternally-derived PCV2 antibodies in seropositive piglets. The results of this study were not conclusive. However, they laid the foundation for future studies based upon using varying levels of vaccine antigen with different adjuvants, and administered to piglets with defined maternally derived PCV2 antibodies.<p> Subsequently, I examined if a new PCV2 vaccine candidate comprised of bacteriophage lambda particles displaying part of the PCV2 capsid protein could induce anti-PCV2 immunity. Initial experiments showed that pigs do not have pre-existing anti-lambda antibodies and thus will not neutralize display particles used as a vaccine at primary vaccination. I produced and characterized lambda phage particles displaying four immunodominant regions of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) capsid protein fused to the lambda capsid protein D i.e., D-CAP, phage display particles. Expression of D-CAP in <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) and its presence in the vaccine preparation was shown by ELISA and Western blots using anti-PCV2 polyclonal antiserum from a gnotobiotic pig. The vaccine, lambda particles displaying PCV2 capsid protein immunogenic epitopes fused to lambda D protein (LDP-D-CAP), administered without an adjuvant induced both humoral and cellular immunity to PCV2 in conventional pigs, as shown by ELISA, Western blots, virus neutralization assay and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions. This work produced the first potential phage vaccine to PCV2. In order to further investigate the feasibility of using the lambda display technology. I produced and characterized two additional lambda display particle preparations, LDP-D-FLAG and LDP-D-GFP, displaying a FLAG tag and the green fluorescent proteins, respectively.

The work presented in this thesis deals with the analysis of protein crystal structures with an emphasis on the stereochemical aspects of the folded conformation of proteins. The various analyses described have been performed on a data-set of 250 high resolution and non-homologous protein structures derived from the Protein Data Bank. The overall objective of the work has been to analyse conformational features of the non-secondary structural regions in proteins and identify structural motifs present therein. The results can be useful in the three-dimensional modelling of proteins, altering the stability of proteins, design of peptide mimics and in understanding the structural rules that guide protein folding. The contents of this thesis can be broadly classified into three parts, (a) Conformational preferences of amino acid residues to occur in the partially allowed regions of the Ramachandran map, (b) conformational features of structural motifs formed by side-chain/main-chain hydrogen bonds by polar residues and (c) analysis and characteristic features of isolated β-strands. Chapter 1 of the thesis gives an introduction, briefly discussing the conformation of polypeptide chains, structural features of globular proteins and applications of protein structural analysis etc. Chapter 2 describes the occurrence of left-handed α-helical conformation in protein structures. A data-set of 250 high resolution (< 2.0A) non-homologous protein crystal structures derived from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) has been analysed for occurrences of left-handed α-helical (αL) conformations. A total of 2,573 αL residues were identified from the data-set. About 59% of the observed examples of at conformations were found to be glycyl residues and about 41% non-glycyl. Continuous long stretches of αL residues are seldom found in protein structures. They are most commonly found as singlets represented by 78% of the observed αL examples. The doublets, triplets and quadruplets account for a very minor fraction of the observed examples. There is only a single example of a stretch of four contiguous αL residues, from the protein thermolysin, which forms a single turn of a left-handed α-helix. A majority of the αL residues are nevertheless part of well-defined substructures in proteins. They play singular roles as part of β-turns and helix termination sites in maintaining the characteristic main-chain hydrogen bonds needed for the stability of these structures. They are also found to be effective in the termination of β-strands. The stereo-chemistry and sequence environment around such structures are discussed. The analysis of the side-chain torsion angles of αL residues indicate that the g+ rotamer is highly unfavourable due to stereo-chemical violations posed by the atoms of the side-chain with those of the backbone. The αL residues are highly conserved by residue type as well as conformation among related proteins indicating their vital importance in protein structures Chapter 3 provides an explanation for the unusual preference of glycyl residues to occur in the bridge regions of the Ramachandran map. The Ramachandran steric map and energy diagrams for the glycyl residue are fully symmetric. Though a plot of the (Φ,Ψ) angles of glycyl residues derived from a data-set of 250 non-homologous and high-resolution protein structures is also largely symmetric, there is a clear aberration in the symmetry. While there is a cluster of points corresponding to the right-handed a-helical region, the "equivalent" cluster is shifted to centre around the (Φ,Ψ)values of (90°, 0°) instead of being centred at the left-handed a-helical region of (60°, 40°). An analysis of glycyl conformations in small peptide structures and in "coil" proteins, which are largely devoid of helical and sheet regions, shows that glycyl residues prefer to adopt conformations around (±90°, 0°) instead of right and left handed a-helical regions. Using theoretical calculations, such conformations are shown to have highest solvent accessibility in a system of two-linked peptide units with glycyl residue at the central Cα atom. This is found to be consistent with the observations from 250 non-homologous protein structures where glycyl residues with conformations close to (±90°, 0°) are seen to have high solvent accessibility. Analysis of a sub-set of non-homologous structures with very high resolution (1.5A or better) shows that water molecules are indeed present at distances suitable for hydrogen bond interaction with glycyl residues possessing conformations close to (±90°, 0°). It is concluded that water molecules play a key role in determining and stabilising these conformations of glycyl residues and explains the aberration in the symmetry of glycyl conformations in proteins. Chapter 4 discusses an analysis of backbone mimicry performed by polar side-chains in protein structures. Backbonemimicry bythe formation of closed loop C7, C10, C13 (mimics of γ-, β- and α-turns) conformations through side-chain main-chain hydrogen bonds by polar groups is found to be a frequent observation in protein structures. A data-set of 250 non-homologous and high-resolution protein structures was used to analyse these conformations for their characteristic features. Seven out of the nine polar residues (Ser, Thr, Asn, Asp, Gin, Glu and His) have hydrogen bonding groups in their side-chains which can participate in such mimicry and as many as 15% of all these polar residues engage in such conformations. The distributions of dihedral angles of these mimics indicate that only certain combinations of the involved dihedral angles aids the formation of these mimics. The observed examples have been categorised into various classes based on these combinations resulting in well-defined motifs. Asn and Asp residues show a very high capability to perform such backbone secondary structural mimicry. The most highly mimicked backbone structure is of the Cio conformation by the Asx residues. The mimics formed by His, Ser, Thr and Glx residues are also discussed. The role of such conformations in initiating the formation of regular secondary structures during the course of protein folding seems significant. Chapter 5 presents a description of deterministic features of side-chain main-chain hydrogen bonds as observed in protein structures. A total of 19,835 polar residues from the data set of 250 non-homologous and highly resolved protein crystal structures were used to identify side-chain main-chain (SC-MC) hydrogen bonds. The ratio of the total number of polar residues to the number of SC-MC hydrogen bonds is close to 2:1, indicating the ubiquitous nature of such hydrogen bonds. Close to 56% of the SC-MC hydrogen bonds are local involving side-chain acceptor/donor (‘i’) and a main-chain donor/acceptor within the window i-5 to i+5. These short-range hydrogen bonds form well defined conformational motifs characterised by specific combinations of backbone and side-chain torsion angles. Some of the salient features of such hydrogen bonds are as follows, (a) The Ser/Thr residues show the greatest preference in forming intra-helical hydrogen bonds between the atoms Oyi and Oi-4 Such hydrogen bonds form motifs of the form αRαRαRαR(g") and are most commonly observed at the middle of α-helices. (b) These residues also show great preference to form hydrogen bonds between OYi and Oi-3, which are closely related to the previous type and though intra-helical, these hydrogen bonds are more often found at the C-termini of helices than at the middle. The motif represented by αRαRαRaR(g+) is most preferred in these cases, (c) The Ser, Thr and Glu (between the side-chain and main-chain of the same residue), (d) The side-chain acceptor atoms of Asn/Asp and Ser/Thr residues show high preference to form hydrogen bonds with acceptors two residues ahead in the chain, which are characterised by the motifs β(tt’)αR and β(t)αR, respectively. These hydrogen bonded segments referred to as Asx turns, are known to provide stability to type I and type I’ β-turns. (e) Ser/Thr residues often form a combination of SC-MC hydrogen bonds, with the side-chain donor hydrogen bonded to the carbonyl oxygen of its own peptide backbone and the side-chain acceptor hydrogen bonded to an amide hydrogen three residues ahead in the sequence. Such motifs are quite often seen at the beginning of a-helices, which are characterised by the β (g+)αRαR motif. A remarkable majority of all these hydrogen bonds are buried from the protein surface, away from the surrounding solvent. This strongly indicates the possibility of side-chains playing the role of the backbone, in the protein interiors, to satisfy the potential hydrogen bonding sites and maintaining the network of hydrogen bonds which is crucial to the structure of the protein. Chapter 6 provides a detailed characterisation of isolated β-strands. Reason for the formation of β-strands in proteins is often associated with the formation of β -sheets. However β-strands, not part of β-sheets, commonly occur in proteins. This raises questions about the structural role and stability of such isolated β-strands. Using a data set consisting of 250 proteins, 518 isolated β-strands have been identified from 187 proteins. The two important features that distinguish isolated β-strands from p-strands occurring in β-sheets are (i) the high preponderance of prolyl residues to occur in isolated β-strands and (ii) their high solvent exposure. It is shown that the high propensity for proline residues to occur in isolated β-strands is not due to the occurrence of polyproline type segments in the data-set. The propensities of other amino acids to occur in isolated β-strands follows the same trend as those for β-sheet forming β-strands. Isolated β-strands are characterised often by their main-chain amide and carbonyl groups involved in hydrogen bonding with polar side-chains or water. They are often flanked by irregular loop structures indicating that they are part of long of loops. Analysis of the conservation of such strands among families of homologous protein structures indicates that a sizeable fraction of them are highly conserved. It is suggested that though the formation of isolated β-strands are driven by the intrinsic preferences of amino acid residues, they have many characteristics like loop segments but with repetitive (Φ,Ψ) values falling within the β-region of the Ramachandran map. In addition of the material described in the six chapters above, the thesis also contains the details of work carried out on an aspect slightly different from the main theme of the thesis. This pertains to the comparative analysis of the members of a family of cytokine receptors to derive information to model new members of the family. The three dimensional modelling of the leptin receptor has been used as a case study and the details are included as an appendix. Appendix describes the 3-dimensional model of the satiety factor receptor (the leptin receptor) modelled using principles of homology modelling. Recessive mutations in the mouse obese (ob) and diabetes (db) genes result in obesity and diabetes in a syndrome resembling human obesity. Data from parabiosis (cross circulation) experiments suggested that the ob gene coded, and was responsible for the generation of a circulating factor called leptin which regulated energy balance and the db gene encoded the receptor for this factor. While the structure of the leptin has been determined that of its cognate receptor is as yet unknown. The leptin receptor shows low but clear sequence similarity to the members of the interleukin type 6 family of receptors. The structures of the members of this family are characterised by two p-sandwich like domains connected by a short 4-residue helical linker. The 3-dimensional models for the N- and C-terminal domains of the leptin receptor was generated using the corresponding structures of the signal transducing component of gpl30, the erythropoetin receptor and the prolactin receptor. Further using the evidence that the leptin binds to its receptor with a stoichiometry of 1:1, the relative orientation of the two domains was modelled based on the structure of the human growth hormone receptor, which also binds its ligand with similar stoichiometry. The complex of leptin with its receptor was also modelled based on the structure of human growth hormone/receptor complex. The final energy minimised model of the complex elucidates the mode of interaction between the leptin and its receptor.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : Edith Mathiowitz. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are thermally responsive polymers composed of the pentapeptide repeat Valine-Proline-Glycine-X-Glycine where X is any amino acid except proline. ELP diblocks have been engineered by creating two ELP blocks with hydrophilic and hydrophobic guest residues. The hydrophobic block desolvates at a lower temperature and forms the core of a micelle while the still hydrated hydrophilic block forms the corona. ELP micelles are promising drug delivery vehicles for cancer therapeutics. ELP diblocks offer a unique method to display targeting proteins multivalently on micelles to improve tumor cell uptake. As ELPs are genetically encoded, proteins can be seamlessly fused at the genetic level to the ELP diblock. The protein ELP diblock fusions can be synthesized as one polypeptide chain that is of precise molecular weight and highly monodisperse, and no post-synthesis modification is necessary. Self-assembly behavior of ELP diblocks is known to tolerate fusion to small peptides (< 10 amino acids) but their self-assembly behavior has not be examined when fused to proteins that are 100-200 amino acids. Here, we hypothesize that molecular weight of the protein and the surface properties of the protein will be factors in determining its effect on ELP diblock self-assembly. In addition, the ELP block lengths and composition are hypothesized to be factors in the self-assembly behavior of protein ELP diblock fusions. This hypothesis is tested by fusing four proteins with different properties to various ELP diblocks and characterizing their self-assembly behavior. The proteins were found to dominate the self-assembly behavior. Proteins that disrupted self-assembly did so for all ELP diblock lengths and compositions. Protein that did not disrupt self-assembly behavior affected the thermal behavior of the hydrophilic block. Hydrophilic proteins increased the micelle-to-aggregate transition temperature while hydrophobic proteins decreased it. We also sought to understand the self-assembly of ELP diblocks on a theoretical basis. A previously developed model for the self-assembly of synthetic polymers was applied to our polypeptide system. Two parameters, solvent quality of the corona and surface tension of the hydrophobic block, were experimentally measured and used to fit the model. Predictions of micelle radius and aggregation numbers were in good agreement with experimental data. However, the corona was found to be unstretched compared to its Gaussian size by this model. Therefore, a new model was developed describing what is termed as weak micelles in which the corona is not stretched but rather close to Gaussian size. The weak micelle model prediction were also in good agreement with experimental data suggesting that ELP micelles are in the crossover regime between the previous model and the new model.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Nearly thirty percent of all newly synthesized polypeptides are targeted for rapid proteasome-mediated degradation. These rapidly degraded polypeptides (RDPs) are the primary source of antigenic substrates for the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I presentation pathway, allowing for the immunosurveillance of newly synthesized proteins by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Despite the recognized role of RDPs in MHC class I presentation, it remains unclear what molecular characteristics distinguish RDPs from their more stable counterparts. It has been proposed that premature translational termination products may constitute a form of RDP; indeed, in prokaryotes translational drop-off products are normal by-products of protein synthesis and are subsequently rapidly degraded. </p><p>To study the cellular fate of premature termination products, the antibiotic puromycin was used to modulate prematurely terminated polypeptide production in human cells. At low concentrations, puromycin doubled the fraction of rapidly degraded polypeptides, with enhanced degradation predominantly affecting small polypeptides, consistent with rapid degradation of truncated translation products. Immunoprecipitation experiments using anti-puromycin antisera demonstrated that the majority of peptidyl-puromycins are rapidly degraded in a proteasome-dependent manner. Low concentrations of puromycin increased the recovery of cell surface MHC class I-peptide complexes, indicating that prematurely terminated polypeptides can be processed for presentation via the MHC I pathway. In the continued presence of puromycin, MHC I export to the cell surface was inhibited, coincident with the accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteins. The time- and dose-dependent effects of puromycin suggest that the pool of peptidyl-puromycin adducts differ in their targeting to various proteolytic pathways which, in turn, differ in the efficiency with which they access the MHC class I presentation machinery. These studies highlight the diversity of cellular proteolytic pathways necessary for the metabolism and immunosurveillance of prematurely terminated polypeptides which are, by their nature, highly heterogeneous.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Peptide drugs are an exciting class of pharmaceuticals currently in development for the treatment of a variety of diseases; however, their main drawback is a short half-life, which dictates multiple and frequent injections. We have developed two novel peptide delivery approaches -Protease Operated Depots (PODs) and GLP-1-ELP depots- to provide sustained and tunable release of a peptide drug from an injectable s.c. depot. </p><p>We demonstrate proof-of-concept of these delivery systems, by fusion of monomer or protease cleavable oligomers of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a type-2 diabetes peptide drug, and a thermally responsive, depot-forming elastin-like-polypeptide (ELP) that undergoes thermally triggered inverse phase transition below body temperature, thereby forming an injectable depot. Utilizing a novel system we designed for repetitive gene synthesis, various GLP-1 polymers were designed and tested as potential therapeutic payload for PODs. By attachment to various ELPs, designed to transition above or below body temperature, we created both depot forming GLP-ELP fusions and soluble control. All fusion constructs maintained alpha helical content and were shown to be resistant to proteolytic degradation. In vitro activated PODs and GLP-ELP fusions were able to activate the GLP-1 receptor and remarkably, a single injection of both GLP-1 PODs and GLP-ELP fusions were able to reduce blood glucose levels in mice for up to 5 days, 120 times longer than an injection of the native peptide drug. These findings suggest that ELP based peptide depots may offer a modular, genetically encoded alternative to various synthetic peptide delivery schemes for sustained delivery of peptide therapeutics.</p> / Dissertation

Certains polymères synthétiques biodégradables ont montré des propriétés physico-chimiques aussi intéressantes que celles des plastiques issus du pétrole. Cependant, leur coût élevé dû au prix des matières premières ainsi qu’au faible nombre de voies de synthèse efficaces empêchent leur rentabilité. Une des alternatives serait le développement de méthodes de production viables économiquement par l’utilisation de catalyseurs productifs et de voies de synthèses à économie d’atomes. Ce manuscrit rassemble les travaux effectués durant la thèse sur une série de catalyseurs organométalliques hautement actifs pour la synthèse du poly(lactide), de nouvelles stratégies catalytiques pour la production du poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) et la polymérisation à économie d’atomes d’α-aminoacide-N-carboxyanhydrides pour la production de poly(α-peptides). / Many synthetic biodegradable polymers show competitive physical properties compared to petrochemically derived plastics. However, due to the low availability and high cost of renewable feed stocks or lack of efficient synthetic routes, their industrial production and successful commercial execution lacks economical feasibility. One way to improve the current situation is the implementation of cost efficient methods either by using productive catalysts or by atom-efficient synthetic methods. Here we report the discovery of a series of highly active organometallic catalysts for the synthesis of poly(lactide), new catalytic methodologies for the production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), and an atom-efficient polymerization of α-aminoacid-N-carboxyanhydrides to poly(α-peptides).