Oligoescuaramidas cíclicassíntesis y actividad biológica

Abstract

This Doctoral thesis, entitled “Cyclic oligosquaramides: synthesis and biological activity”, describes the synthesis of different squaramidic derivatives with biological applications. The Thesis is divided in four chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction and the remaining chapters compile the results obtained. They are organized following the temporal workflow. Thus, the objectives of every chapter arise from the results of the previous one. Chapter 1 describes the squaramide unit properties and the biological applications of some compounds with this structure. Chapter 2 presents the synthesis of cyclic oligosquaramides with different structural modifications. Once solved the synthesis and structural elucidation, their antitumor activity has been evaluated, comparing the results with those obtained in a previous assay. The new synthetized cyclic oligosquaramides have similar or lower antitumoral activity that those studied before. In this chapter are also included the different synthetic strategies followed in order to overcome the drawbacks arisen during the elongation and macrocyclization stages. Chapter 3 reports the synthesis of cyclic oligosquaramides fluorescent probes with the aim to investigate the cell permeabilization process and the inner cell localization of these compounds once the treatment is done. The study has been done with the smallest cyclic oligosquaramide due to its low cytotoxicity. Altogether, three fluorescent probes have been prepared, differing in the fluorophore used and the conjugation procedure. Best results have been achieved with a probe containing a BODIPY derivative as a fluorescent marker. This probe is internalized by active transport, has a great photostability and remains located at late endosomes within the cell. The easily achieved cell internalization has been explained with the affinity observed between the cyclic oligosquaramide and phosphorylated molecules found in cell membranes and in the cytoplasm. To support this hypothesis, this chapter includes the experiments done with ITC in order to determine the affinity between a cyclic quaternized oligosquaramide and models from some relevant biomolecules as: mannose 6-phosphate, phosphocholine, etc. The covalent conjugates with cyclic oligosquaramides are able to facilitate drugs transportation. Because of this, and with the evidence of the observed cell internalization, their utilization as autoimmolative carriers has been proposed. So, Chapter 4 describes the design, synthesis and evaluation of an autoimmolative system consisting in a squaramide unit and a load, in this case a fluorophore. After some attempts, the system has been optimized using a disulfide bond as the trigger. The developed autoimmolative system releases the entire load in physiological conditions after two hours.