Funcionalització d'o-carborans iodats per obtenir estructures dendrimèriques útils en aplicacions mèdiques Iodinated o-carboranes functionalization to produce dendrimeric structures useful in medicine

The 1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane, o-carborane, is an icosahedral cluster consisting of ten boron-hydrogen vertices and two carbon-hydrogen adjacent vertices. This molecule is chemically versatile, has a differential reactivity depending on the type of vertex, and this enables the functionalization according to the desired medical application. Our research group has extensive experience in electrophilic substitution reactions on the boron atoms, especially to obtain boron-iodinated carborane derivatives, which contain a large number of iodine atoms per molecule. This condition makes them good candidates for use as X-ray contrast agents in methyl methacrylate bone cements. These boron-iodine bonds may be subsequently functionalized with various organic functional groups forming new boron-carbon vertices and producing useful molecules as dendron nuclei. The growth of these dendrimeric cores is carried out by coupling reactions with other functionalized carboranes yielding molecules with high boron content, useful as anticancer agents in BNCT (Boron Neutron Capture Therapy).