PhD Defense of Orfeas PLASTIRAS

Reporter

Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique)

Reporter

CNRS

Sorbonne Université

Examiner

Université de Lorraine

Examiner

Université Paris Saclay

Thesis director

Centrale Lille Institut

Université de Lille

Invited member

Institut Pasteur de Lille

Virucidal, coronavirus, nanomaterial, silica, metal-organic framework.

In this thesis, the potential use of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and mesoporous SiO2 (SBA-15 silica) as virucidal agents has been explored.

The first part of the work deals with the development of an accurate and robust method on quantifying the cytotoxicity of these materials in different cell lines, as well as determining the infectious viral titer before and after the contact of the materials with an enveloped virus. Thus, the virucidal activity of the MOFs and silicas can be easily calculated against two coronaviruses, HCoV-229E and SARS-CoV-2.

The second part focuses on the use of porphyrin ligands as building blocks for MOFs and their impact on the viral particle (virion) under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, their virucidal effect is explored against two other viruses, MERS-CoV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), by delving in the mechanism of action that is responsible for their superb activity. Later, the porphyrin ligand was metalated and compared to distinguish whether there is an improvement in the virucidal activity or not.

The third and last part is dedicated to the functionalization of MOFs and SBA-15 with different photosensitizers in the family of tetrapyrrole macrocycles, such as porphyrins or chlorins, via the formation of a robust amide bond. The virucidal activity of these materials was superiorly enhanced with this way, compared to the non-functionalized materials. Lastly, a comparison between four molecules of this family was done and different mechanisms of action were explored and justified.