Bacterial infections have posed a serious threat to the public health due to the significant rise of the infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. There has been considerable interest in the development of antimicrobial agents which mimic the natural HDPs, and among them biodegradable polymers are newly discovered drug candidates with ease of synthesis and low manufacture cost compared to synthetic host defense peptides. Herein, we present the synthesis of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers including polycarbonate polymers, unimolecular micelle hyperbranched polymers and dendrimers that mimic the antibacterial mechanism of HDPs by compromising bacterial cell membranes. The developed amphiphilic polycarbonates are highly selective to Gram-positive bacteria, including multidrug-resistant pathogens and the unimolecular micelle hyperbranched polymers showed promising broad-spectrum activity. However, lipidated amphiphilic dendrimers with low molecular weight display potent and selective antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including multidrug-resistant strains. In addition to antibacterial activity against planktonic bacteria, these dendrimers were also shown to inhibit bacterial biofilms effectively. These class of polymers may lead to a useful generation of antibiotic agents with practical applications.

Yes / The synthesis of cyclic amphiphilic graft copolymers with a hydrophobic polycarbonate backbone and hydrophilic poly(N-acryloylmorpholine) (PNAM) side arms via a combination of ring-opening polymerization (ROP), cyclization via copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), and reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is reported. The ability of these cyclic graft copolymers to form unimolecular micelles in water is explored using a combination of light scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryoTEM) analyses, where particle size was found to increase with increasing PNAM arm length. Further analysis revealed differences in the solution conformations, loading capabilities, and morphologies of the cyclic graft copolymers in comparison to equivalent linear graft copolymer unimolecular micelle analogues. Furthermore, the cyclic and linear graft copolymers were found to exhibit significantly different cloud point temperatures. This study highlights how subtle changes in polymer architecture (linear graft copolymer versus cyclic graft copolymer) can dramatically influence a polymer’s nanostructure and its properties. / Royal Society (Great Britain), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), European Research Council (ERC)

This work reports a novel biocompatible and biodegradable arborescent amphiphilic polypept(o)ides-based polymer poly(γ-benzyl L-glutamate)-co-poly(γ-tert-butyl L-glutamate)-g-polysarcosine (P(BG-co-Glu(OtBu))-g-PSar) as a smart dual-responsive targeting drug vehicle. The synthesis pathway in this work highlighted the grafting reaction improvement of the polypeptides core and using polysarcosine (PSar) corona as a coating agent. The responsiveness of the polymer is caused by the pH sensitivity of the polypeptides and the reducible linker introduced between the core and corona. While adding the tripeptides arginine, glycine, and aspartate (RGD) as a ligand on the unimolecular micelles’ surface increases the targeting ability of the polymer. During the building of the arborescent, the coupling sites were controlled by using γ-tert-butyl L-glutamate (Glu(OtBu)-NCA) as a second monomer besides γ-benzyl L-glutamate (BG-NCA) since the deprotection conditions are different for Bz and tBu groups. Knowing the coupling sites provides accuracy in calculating the molecular weight (MW) of graft polymers since it facilitates the determination of the grafting yield (Gy). The arborescent unimolecular micelles were formulated by coating the hydrophobic core with PSar hydrophilic corona. The distribution of the coupling sites on the substrates in the last generation yielded end-grafted and randomly-grafted unimolecular micelles. A comparison between those micelles by DLS, TEM, and AFM revealed that the end-grafted micelles showed more uniformity in terms of morphology and size distribution. Also, the surface modification achieved via RGD addition increased the shape uniformity and contributed to avoiding the particles’ aggregation. The sizes and shapes of end-grafted unimolecular micelles match the drug delivery systems (DDSs) requirements. Doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated physically into the unimolecular micelles to study the drug loading capacity (DLC) and drug loading efficiency (DLE). The maximum DLC and DLE were 14% and 28% w/w, respectively. The drug release profiles were investigated in healthy- and cancer-mimicking media. The results showed that in cancer-mimicking microenvironment (low pH and high glutathione (GSH) content), the drug diffused out the micelles faster. In addition, a slower drug release was noticed for RGD decorated unimolecular micelles. Finally, the biocompatibility, cytotoxicity, and cellular uptake of the unimolecular micelles were studied. The obtained results were promising as the arborescent unimolecular micelles showed excellent biocompatibility; meanwhile, the DOX-loaded unimolecular micelles have good cytotoxicity compared to free DOX. RGD targeting ligand contributes to increasing the cellular uptake and supports the sustained release.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal