Conférence du Professeur Marc Gingras (Marseille)

Titre: Degradable Dendrimers. Synthesis and Usefulness in Drug Delivery.

Cette conférence sera prononcée en anglais par le professeur Marc Gingras du Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience à Marseilles (CINaM) affilié à l'Université Aix-Marseille (France). Ce dernier sera à Montréal dans le cadre d'une mission inter-universitaire de plusieurs semaines.

Résumé : In the last decade, a new stage was set in the chemistry of dendrimers: their degradation. It happened after many efforts to assemble them in an efficient manner. The degradability of dendrimers is a modern topic in the era of green chemistry and environmental concerns. The current progress in this field suggests highly important uses to come, especially in life sciences, in nanosciences and in materials chemistry. Dendrimers are well-defined, discrete macromolecules with a high degree of molecular uniformity and monodispersity. Several features such as multifunctionality, multivalency effects, adhesive properties or molecular recognition and encapsulation make them attractive for drug delivery systems. This work will focus on the selection and the optimization of specific structural elements in order to offer a satisfactory compromise between structure-properties relationships (water-solubility, biocompatibility, reduced toxicity and enzymatic degradability). A structural and functional strategy enlightened a multilayer approach of components for optimizing the properties. The synthesis of new symmetric or non-symmetric dendritic architectures bearing drugs in a covalent way were sought toward possible uses in mono- or in polytherapy. Studies concerning the enzymatic degradation of some dendritic prodrugs will be described. In vitro studies highlighted a “multiplicity effect” and the influence of several structural parameters modulating drug delivery processes.

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