Résumé : In the first part of this work, magnetized nanoporous silica based microparticles (MMPs) are used for horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immobilization and applied in amperometric peroxidase-based biosensors. A homemade magnetized carbon paste electrode permits the MMPs attraction close to the electrode surface. The resulting original biosensor is applied to the investigation of enzymatic oxidation of model drug compounds namely, clozapine (CLZ) and acetaminophen (APAP) by HRP in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The biosensor operates at a low applied potential and the signal corresponds to the electro-reduction of electroactive species enzymatically generated. The biosensor allows performing the quantitation of the two drug compounds in the micromolar concentration range. It allows also the study of thiol compounds based on the inhibition of the biosensor response. Interestingly, distinct inhibition results are observed for HRP entrapped in the silica microparticles compared to the soluble HRP.

We expect that this type of biosensors holds high promise in quantitative analysis and in biotransformation studies of drug compounds.

In the second part of this thesis work, HRP immobilized magnetic nanoparticles are injected on-line and magnetically retained, as a microreactor, in the capillary of a CE setup. The purpose of such a configuration is to develop an analytical tool for studying “in vitro” drug biotransformation. The advantages expected are (i) minimum sample (drug compound) and biocomponent (enzyme) consumption, (ii) high analysis throughput, (iii) selectivity and sensitivity. In order to illustrate the potential of such an instrumental configuration, it has been applied to study acetaminophen as model drug compound. The mechanistic information obtained by the HRP/H2O2 system is in agreement with literature data on acetaminophen metabolization. Horseradish peroxidase kinetic studies are realized by this setup and the apparent Michaelis constant is determined. Capillary electrophoresis permitted the identification of APAP off-line biotransformed products such as N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI), the APAP dimer and APAP polymers as inferred from literature data. The formation of the APAP dimer was further confirmed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.