Leveraging a polycycloether structure into functional biomaterials

Masclef, Jean-Baptiste (2024) Leveraging a polycycloether structure into functional biomaterials. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Polysaccharides are ubiquitous in nature: cellulose is the main structural component of plants, glycogen is an important energy reserve for animals and fungi, starch is an essential part of human diet. In comparison, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a synthetic polyether that has found an ever-increasing amount of use-cases: medical tools and devices, laxatives, shampoos, shower gels, ceramic binders, plastic bags, rocket fuel and many more.

Inspired by nature’s polysaccharides and the commercial success of PEG, this thesis reports the synthesis of various novel polycycloethers sharing structural elements from the two aforementioned polymers. The singular polycyclic structure obtained was leveraged into materials with unique properties.

PEGose-b-PLA, an amphiphilic block copolymer was synthesised and used for the preparation of highly stable nanoparticles, capable of encapsulating and steadily releasing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic cargoes. The high biocompatibility and cell permeation suggests that it might be used as an efficient PEG-free drug delivery system. The morphology of the nanoparticles could be tuned by controlling the tacticity of the PEGose block, from nanospheres to cubic particles depending on the buffer used. A series of polycycloether-b-PEG was synthesised, mimicking the structure of commonly used Poloxamers. The block copolymer proved to be a highly effective surfactant, with high-internal phase emulsions obtained at low concentration, irrespective of the oil/water ratio used. Finally, polycyclic cationic homopolymers were synthesised with a various amount of cationic charges through different post-polymerisation functionalisation strategies, with potential use as gene vectors.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: Q Science > QD Chemistry
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Supervisor's Name: Prunet, Dr. Joelle and Schmidt, Dr. Bernhard
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84672
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 07 Nov 2024 11:26
• Last Modified: 07 Nov 2024 11:29
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84672
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84672

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