Patent Application: US-93338009-A

Abstract:
an activatable functionalised n th generation dendrimer having : a core comprising a first monomer having at least two carboxylic acid functional groups ; and n successive generations , where n = 0 to 10 , wherein each generation comprises : a second monomer having at least two alcohol functional groups , wherein at least one alcohol group is bonded to a carboxylic acid group of the first monomer of the prior generation , and an additional first monomer attached to a second alcohol function group of said second monomer of that generation ; and the final generation having attached thereto at said second alcohol functional group of said second monomer , a moiety having a dicarboxylic acid functional group , activatable by treatment with a carboxylic acid activating reagent such that reactivity of the carboxylic acid functional group is increased . the dendrimer , when activated , may be used in applications such as polymer crosslinking and / or nanoshell production .

Description:
referring now to the drawings and specifically fig1 to 9 inclusive and initially fig1 . fig1 shows a schematic drawing illustrating divergent dendrimer synthesis using a tricarboxylic acid core initiating monomer that is reacted with a polyol monomer to produce the first dendrimer generation g1 . the build up of successive generations and half generations can be observed in the drawing . use of tricarboxylic acid and alcohol functionalised monomers leads to successive generations where the monomers are linked by ester bonds . now referring to fig2 , fig2 shows the infrared spectra of a g3 hydroxyl terminated dendrimer with — oh stretching bands . the present invention provides a method of synthesizing novel biodegradable , biocompatible , non - toxic , pre - activated functionalised dendrimers which can be used to crosslink natural polymers without the requirement for pretreatment of the polymer with reagents such as edc or other carbodiimide and / or to incorporate functionality and controlled levels of stability to such polymers through use of functionalised dendrimer cross linkers which are capable of binding other molecules or delivering drugs , genes or other biomolecules for example . the pre - activated dendrimer can be made using diol based monomers , for example peg based ( polyethylene glycol , propylene glycol , or polyethylene oxide ) wherein the peg backbone can comprise from one to ten atoms . dendrimers can also be based on polyols which can be branched or unbranched and have multiple hydroxyl groups , such as pentaerythritol or glycerol . if polyols are used , a higher complexity of arm branching can be incorporated into the dendrimer body . preferably , the dendrimer is made from longer chains of peg ( 3 - 10 atoms ), which advantageously provide areas of space for cells , nutrients and oxygen ( for growth of the cells ) to penetrate into the polymer scaffold . the pre - activated functionalised dendrimer can have any number of branched arms extending from the dendrimeric core , depending on the starting initiator core and the number of generating steps employed . for example , use of a tricarboxylic acid such as aconitic acid in a first generation step will provide a first generation carboxylic acid functionalised dendrimer ( g1 ) having three branches , a second generation step will provide a second generation dendrimer ( g2 ) with six branches and a third generation dendrimer ( g3 ) with twelve branches , so on and so forth . for the present invention , it is envisaged that dendrimers up to g10 level will be suitable for use in polymer - based scaffolds and other biological dendrimer applications . in one embodiment , the synthesised pre - activated dendrimer is functionalised to allow crosslinking to occur . the functionalised pre - activated dendrimer may have , for example , a carboxylic acid functionality or an amine functionality . carboxylic acid functionality is preferred ; the activated carboxylic acid functional group lends anion properties to the dendrimer which means the dendrimer is less toxic than cationic dendrimers . furthermore , the carboxylic acid functional group can be used to bind to amino acids in the natural polymer or individual exo - or endogenous peptides , hormones , drugs or antibodies for example . activation occurs by using activating agents such as pentafluorophenol ( pfp ), n - hydroxy succinimide ( nhs ), benzotriazol - 1 - yl - oxy - tris ( dimethylamino ) phosphoniuhme xafluorophosphate ( bop ); benzotriazol - 1 - yl - n - oxy - tris ( pyrrolidino )- phosphonium hexafluorophosphate ( pybop ); bromo - tris ( pyrrolidino )- phosphonium hexafluorophosphate ( pybrop ); n -[( dimethylamino )- 1h - 1 , 2 , 3 - triazolo -[ 4 , 5 - b ] pyridin - 1 - yl - methylene ]- n - methylmethanaminium hexafluorophosphate n - oxide ( hatu ); n -[( 1h - benzotriazol - 1 - yl )( dimethylamino ) methylene ]- n - methylmethanaminium hexafluorophosphate n - oxide ( hbtu ); 2 -( 1hbenzotriazole - 1 - yl )- 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyluronium tetrafluoroborate ( tbtu ). nhs and pfp are the preferred activators . however , nhs is the activator of choice . in the case of carboxylic acid functionalised surfaces , use of such reagents result in the formation of a highly reactive lewis acid species which is extremely reactive towards amine groups and thus advantageously does not require use of agents such as edc to engage in cross linking . a “ three generation ” dendritic system ( g3 ) is prepared by a series of subsequent assembly steps . in this example , generation 1 ( g1 ) has three carboxylic terminal arms . generation 2 ( g2 ) has six arms and generation 3 ( g3 ) has twelve arms . the mono - protected diol , for example , can be prepared from any diol , such as for example , diethylene glycol , triethylene glycol , tetraethylene glycol . for this example it is preferable to use ethylene glycol . one of the diol alcohol groups can be protected using any labile alcohol protecting groups reagents such as p - toluene sulfonyl chloride ( ptscl ), trimethylsilyl chloride ( tms ), tert - butyldiphenylsilyl ( tbdps ), tert - butyldimethylsilyl chloride ( tbs / tbdms ) and triisopropylsilyl chloride ( tips ), in the presence of silver oxide or silica gel as catalyst for the reaction , in the presence of an alkali halide such as potassium iodide , in an inert non - polar solvent such as chloroform , dichloromethane , dichloroethane , tetrahydrofuran or dimethylformamide ( dmf ) ( wang et al ). dichloromethane is preferably used . this results in formation of the mono - protected diol dendrimer building block . a typical reaction scheme is shown here : typically , the first stage involves the synthesis of a g1 dendrimer which is typically synthesized by an esterification reaction between the alcohol ( second monomer or branch extender monomer ) of a mono - protected diol with any tricarboxylic acid ( first monomer ) of interest . for example , tricarboxylic acids can be used such as citric acid or aconitic acid can be used as the core or initiating monomer . in this example , aconitic acid , which has three acid groups available for esterification reaction , has been used as the core or initiating monomer . esterification of the carboxylic groups occurs in the presence of n , n - dimethylamino pyridinium - p - toluene sulfonate ( dpts — a catalyst ) and n -( 3 - dimethylaminopropyl )- n ′- ethylcarbodiimide ( edc — a catalyst ) in acetonitrile or dmf ( moore & amp ; stupp ). other suitable solvents are dichloromethane , chloroform or tetrahydrofuran . the reaction is preferably carried out at room temperature although temperatures in the range 0 ° c .- 40 ° c . are suitable . the reaction can be allowed to proceed for a maximum of about 12 hours , however , a reaction time of about 8 to 12 hours is preferred . the esterification reaction results in a basic first generation dendrimer unit ( g1 ) having three protected surface hydroxyl groups . the protected surface functional groups of the g1 dendrimer are de - protected using acid or more preferably a source of fluoride ion such as tetrabutylammonium fluoride or tetrabutylammonium hydroxide for about 12 hours , preferably at room temperature , although any temperature in the range of about 20 ° c .- 30 ° c . is suitable . the resulting unprotected hydroxyl surface functional groups of g1 are then reacted with excess of carboxylic acid ( aconitic acid in this example ) using the same esterification conditions as described in the g1 section to provided a half generation g1 . 5 dendrimer with aconitic acid bound to the surface hydroxyls by an ester bond . monoprotected diol can be reacted with the dendrimer and de - protected to provide a g2 dendrimer having six surface hydroxyl groups available for further esterification reactions with mono - protected diols . the dendrimer g2 , containing the six hydroxyl surface functional groups can be then reacted with aconitic acid to produce a half generation g2 . 5 dendrimer . g2 . 5 dendrimer can then be reacted with the mono - protected diol of interest and then deprotected to provide a g3 dendrimer . the third generation g3 has twelve hydroxyl surface functional groups . unprotected g3 dendrimers based on tricarboxylic acids and diols thus potentially may have 12 hydroxyl groups available for further esterification reactions with aconitic acid and subsequent steps , if higher generations ( g4 - g10 etc ) are required . successive generations can be produced by building up the dendrimer layers in succession , one after another ( aconitic acid followed by diol ) according to the reactions conditions provided herein . the unprotected g n dendrimer may then treated with excess of sodium succinic anhydride in anhydrous thf or dmf for about 8 - 12 hours at room temperature to provide an activatable carboxylic acid surface functionalised dendrimer . the scheme below shows the fuctionalisation of a g3 dendrimer using a dicarboxylic acid group providing species . the surface carboxylic acid functionalised groups of the dendrimer can be activated by treating with reagents such as pentafluorophenyl trifluoroacetate or pentafluorophenyl trifluoroacetate in anhydrous thf or dmf in presence of a base . this gives the activated pentafluorophenyl ester of the dendrimer . activation results in formation of a hyperactive intermediate loosely bound ester with enhanced reactivity over regular carboxylic acid groups , and thus is capable of reacting easily with amine groups on the natural polymer rapidly to formamide groups , without the need for use of undesirable reagents such as edc . activation of both the carboxylic acid groups produced from a dicarboxylic acid functional provider , such as succinic acid , or those resulting from the terminating aconitic acid species is possible . however , the carboxylic acid groups of dendrimer terminated with aconitic acid are positioned quite closely together and the close proximity of the acid groups means that carboxylic acid activation is hindered due to steric crowding . thus activation of dendrimers terminated with aconitic acid carboxylic groups and subsequent reaction with amines will lead to different products . aconitic acid ( 1 . 7411 g = 0 . 01 moles ) is refluxed with excess of tetraethylene glycol ( or any polyol ) in presence of anhydrous metal chlorides ( viz . magnesium chloride , manganese chloride , zinc chloride , calcium chloride ) and anhydrous aluminium oxide or heated silica to get generation 1 dendrimer . the generation g1 dendrimer with hydroxyl functional groups is further refluxed with excess of aconitic acid in presence of anhydrous metal chlorides ( viz . magnesium chloride , manganese chloride , zinc chloride , calcium chloride ) and anhydrous aluminium oxide or heated silica to produce generation g2 dendrimer . in this manner , different generation dendrimer can be prepared . the surface functional groups are modified in the same way as mentioned in the previous method . aconitic acid is activated by using activating agents such as pentafluorophenol ( pfp ), n - hydroxy succinimide , benzotriazol - 1 - yl - oxy - tris ( dimethylamino ) phosphoniumhexafluorophosphate ( bop ); benzotriazol - 1 - yl - n - oxy - tris ( pyrrolidino )- phosphonium hexafluorophosphate ( pybop ); bromo - tris ( pyrrolidino )- phosphonium hexafluorophosphate ( pybrop ); n -[( dimethylamino )- 1h - 1 , 2 , 3 - triazolo -[ 4 , 5 - b ] pyridin - 1 - yl - methylene ]- n - methylmethanaminium hexafluorophosphate n - oxide ( hatu ); n -[( 1h - benzotriazol - 1 - yl )( dimethylamino ) methylene ]- n - methylmethanaminium hexafluorophosphate n - oxide ( h btu ); 2 -( 1hbenzotriazole - 1 - yl )- 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyluronium tetrafluoroborate ( tbtu ). the activated aconitic acid is then treated with excess of polyol in presence of a base to get generation g1 dendrimer . the generation g1 dendrimer with hydroxyl functional groups is further treated with excess of activated aconitic acid in presence of a base . this process gives the generation g2 dendrimer . this way different generation dendrimer is prepared . the surface functional groups are modified in the same way as mentioned in the previous method . the hydroxyl surface functional groups of the dendrimer can be converted into amine functional groups by reaction of the dendrimer with n - fmoc - glycine pentafluorophenyl ester . glycine amino acid is treated with fmoc - osu to protect the amine group . n - protected glycine carboxylic group is then pre - activated by treatment with pentafluorophenol . this activated n - protected glycine is treated with the dendrimer to get a dendrimer with n - protected amine surface functional groups . the n - fmoc protection is then deprotected to get activated amine terminated dendrimer . preparation steps for a g3 amine functionalised dendrimer are shown below . the novel activated functionalised dendrimers can be utilised to cross - link natural polymers without the use of edc pre - treatment of the natural polymer . this is advantageous because it avoids unwanted cross - linking in the polymer . crosslinking is controllable due to the number of activated carboxylic acid groups on the dendrimer . the natural polymer can be for example , collagen , chitosan , chitin , hyaluronan or any other polymer that comprises protein amino acid sequences , such as elastin . however , collagen has been used herein as an exemplary protein polymer . the dendrimer used is activated carboxylic acid functionalised dendrimer ( acfd ). the solution of natural polymer ( 3 . 0 mg / ml of collagen ) is treated with a solution of 2 mg / ml of activated functional dendrimer in a polar solvent such as dmf , water or 1 , 4 - dioxan for 12 - 24 hours at 4 - 5 ° c . the functional groups that take part in the cross - linking are pre - activated cooh groups of the dendrimer . the active cooh groups of the dendrimer react in the presence of nh 2 groups of the natural polymer without requirement of edc or other activating agent . the activated carboxylic acid groups on the dendrimer surface provide a linking capacity to other functional groups . depending on the number of functional groups that are needed to be attached , the dendrimer can be programmed accordingly . this allows the user to control the amount and number of crosslinks introduced into the polymer . as mentioned earlier , it will be appreciated that as the dendrimer surface functional groups are pre - activated , there is no need to use carbodiimide chemistry or other adjuvants to stimulate cross - linking . it will be further appreciated that in this example the novel dendrimers are utilised to cross - link natural polymers for their application as molecular scaffolds , however the pre - activated functionalised dendrimer can be used equally well in other dendrimer applications . in one embodiment , a functionalised third generation ( g3 ) dendrimer is synthesized and used as a cross - linker to produce a molecular scaffold from natural polymer . however , it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to the use of a g3 dendrimer . it is preferable that dendrimers of g1 - g10 level can be used as polymer cross linkers , depending on the requirements for any application . in some applications , g1 - g10 dendrimers are preferred , in other applications , more particularly preferred however are g2 - g8 dendrimers and other applications still , most preferred are g3 - g5 dendrimers . in one embodiment , it is advantageous to use low generation dendrimers , since low generation level dendrimers have more biologically favourable properties , when compared to high generations . for example , low generation level dendrimers are less toxic , less bulky and may fit more efficiently and thus are better able to cross link the natural polymer to form a scaffold . the nature of incorporation of the dendrimers can be evaluated using shrink temperature and atr - ftir . the cytocompatibility of the dendrimer can also be tested . characterisation of cross - linking may be determined by measurement of water uptake , determination of free amines , enzymatic degradation assays , uniaxial testing of bulk material , ftip , dynamic mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry . acontic acid , poly ( ethylene glycol ) ( mw 200 ), diethylene glycol , absolute ethanol , methanol , p - toluene sulfonyl chloride ( ptscl ), p - toluene sulfonic acid ( ptsa ), 4 -( dimethylamino ) pyridinium 4 - toluene sulfonate ( dpts ), 4 -( dimethylamino ) pyridine ( dmap ), silver oxide , potassium iodide ( ki ), succinic anhydride , collagen . ptsa ( 19 . 022 g ) is dehydrated by refluxing with toluene in a dean stark apparatus for 3 hours . a solution of dmap ( 12 . 217 g ) in toluene is prepared . the two solutions are mixed and the white suspension is cooled and filtered . the solid is re - crystallized using dry dichloroethane to give white needles which melt at 165 ° c . a solution of silver nitrate ( 30 g ) in zoo ml water and a solution of sodium hydroxide ( 6 . 9 g ) in 200 ml of water are heated to 80 - 90 ° c . for 30 min separately . these two solutions are mixed together and the suspension is hot filtered . the solid is washed with 200 ml of hot water and 200 ml of 95 % ethanol and finally with 200 ml of ethanol to yield silver oxide . one of the functional oh of the diols ( i . e ethylene glycols ) is protected selectively before reacting with the aconitic acid . the diol is mono - protected using silver oxide and alkyl halide in quantitative yields . the diols before reacting with the dendrimer core ( aconitic acid ) are to the monoprotected . the diols are protected by treatment with ( 1 . 0 equivalent ) freshly prepared silver oxide ( 1 . 5 equivalent ) and p - toluene sulfonyl chloride ( ptscl ) ( 1 . 1 equivalent ) in the presence of potassium iodide ( ki ) ( 0 . 2 equivalent ) in dichloromethane . the resulting mixture is stirred for 8 - 10 hours to yield mono - tosyl protected diol in 97 - 99 % yield . the generation dendrimer ( g1 ) is prepared by reacting mon - protected diol with aconitic acid by the procedure reported by moore and stupp for esterification of aliphatic acids . the mono - protected diol ( 4 equivalent ) ( in excess ) is treated with aconitic acid ( 1 equivalent ) in the presence of dpts ( 1 . 1 equivalent ) and edc ( 1 . 2 equivalent ) in dichloromethane or dmf . the resulting mixture is stirred for 8 - 10 hours at room temp to give dendrimer 1 with protected oh surface groups . the protected surface functional groups of the dendrimer g1 are deprotected using tetrabutyl ammonium fluoride or hydroxide for 12 hours at room temp . the resulting unprotected oh surface groups are then reacted with excess of aconitic acid using the same procedure as above , using dpts and edc to yield dendrimer g2 . the dendrimer g2 containing the surface cooh surface functional groups are then reacted with mono - protected diol to get protected surface functional dendrimer d3 . the protected group is then subsequently deprotected using the same procedure as above the dendrimer d3 is treated with excess of succinic anhydride in anhydrous thf or dmf for 8 - 12 hours at room temp to get cooh functional dendrimer . the cooh functionalised dendrimer may then activated by using pfp ( pentafluorophenol ). the dendrimer is treated with excess pentrafluorophenol in the presence of dpts ( 1 . 2 equiv ) and edc ( 1 . 5 equiv ) in dichloromethane or dmf for 12 hours to get pfp activated cooh functional dendrimer . the solution of natural dendrimer ( 3 . 0 mg / ml of collagen ) is treated with a solution of 2 mg / ml of activated functional dendrimer in dmf for 12 - 24 hours at 4 - 5 c . the cross - linked scaffold is then freeze dried and washed with 50 : 50 triethylamine : water or dilute ammonium hydroxide at 4 - 5 c for 12 hours and then water for 12 hours , finally with neutral buffer . ir spectra were recorded at room temperature ( 26 + 1 c ) in the mid infrared range ( 4000 - 400 cm − 1 ) using attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectrometer , ( atr - ftir ) ( ftir - 8300 , shimadzu europe ltd ., duisburg , germany ). typically , 50 scans were signal - averaged for a single spectrum at a resolution of 8 cm − 1 using znse crystal at an incident angle of 45 c . the spectra were analysed using the hyper - ir software ( shimadzu europe ltd ., duisburg , germany ) to obtain quantitative peak information . the infra - red spectrum of a g3 - oh dendrimer is shown in fig1 . non - crosslinked polymers are exposed to different cross - linking conditions of dendrimer . ga is used as a positive control . different ratios of substrate to dendrimer will affect the amount on cross - linking in the systems . characterisation of cross - linking may be determined by measurement of water uptake , determination of free amines , enzymatic degradation assays , uniaxial testing of bulk material , ftip , dynamic mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry . rgd and gfp are added to the aqueous solutions of the different generations of peg dendrimer systems . the rgd / gfp modified dendrimer product will be purified by dialysis against the water for 2 days . the purified product may be freeze - dried for characterisation or further reaction . the purified rgd / gfp modified dendrimer can be reconstituted in deuterated water for h - nmr analysis . spectra for the dendrimer will be recorded and the peaks compared . once cross - linked , the substances may be removed from the moulds and immersed in glycine solution ( 0 . 5 % pbs ) at room temp to react with any residual activated carboxylic acid groups and to extract out the reaction product . in order to directly quantify the rgd and gfp content in the modified substrates will be radiolabelled with 125 l using iodogen method and will be counted in a gamma counter to determine the amount of rgd or gfp present in the substrate . the words “ comprises / comprising ” and the words “ having / including ” when used herein with reference to the present invention are used to specify the presence of stated features , integers , steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features , integers , steps , components or groups thereof . it is appreciated that certain features of the invention , which are , for clarity , described in the context of separate embodiments , may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment . conversely , various features of the invention that are , for brevity , described in the context of a single embodiment , may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub - 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