Thesis (Ph. D. in Biochemistry)--Vanderbilt University, May 2009. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Le mélanome uvéal (MU) est une tumeur maligne intraoculaire rare qui touche environ 500 français par an. Malgré un traitement efficace de la tumeur primaire, la moitié des patients développent des métastases principalement hépatiques dans les années qui suivent le diagnostic. En dépit des nombreux efforts réalisés, les thérapies systémiques adjuvantes restent peu efficaces sur le MU métastatique. L’identification de gènes pronostiques et/ou causals du développement métastatique pourrait ainsi permettre des avancées considérables dans la compréhension de cette pathologie et le développement de nouvelles thérapies. Notre laboratoire a identifié la surexpression du gène codant la protéine tyrosine phosphatase PRL-3/PTP4A3 comme hautement prédictive du risque métastatique et du devenir des patients atteints de MU. Sa surexpression est également décrite dans de nombreux autres types de cancers humains métastatiques. La surexpression de PRL-3 dans des cellules de MU augmente significativement la migration cellulaire in vitro et l’invasion in vivo de manière dépendant de son activité catalytique, ce qui suggère un rôle direct de PRL-3 dans le processus métastatique du MU. De plus, nous avons montré qu’empêcher l’ancrage membranaire de PRL-3 en utilisant un inhibiteur de farnésylation (FTI-277) abolit la migration induite par PRL-3 dans les cellules de MU, ce qui révèle l’importance de son ancrage membranaire pour la migration cellulaire. Le but de ma thèse a été d’identifier et de caractériser des substrats cellulaires, et plus particulièrement membranaires, de PRL-3 qui seraient impliqués dans le processus métastatique du MU. Mes résultats montrent que la surexpression de PRL-3 dans des cellules de MU, empêchent l’adhérence des cellules au collagène I et la maturation de structures d’adhérence (FAs) en anneaux impliquant l’intégrine β1 (Itg β1), de manière dépendante de son activité catalytique et de son ancrage membranaire. Nous avons également montré que PRL-3 interagit avec l’Itg β1 et la déphosphoryle sur son motif de phosphorylation intracytoplasmique riche en S/T (T788 et T789), dont l’état de phosphorylation est connu pour réguler l’adhérence cellulaire. Ainsi, mes travaux de recherche ont permis d’identifier PRL-3 comme régulateur des structures d’adhérence à la matrice extracellulaire (MEC) au travers de la régulation de l’Itg β1 et potentiellement de la kinase FAK. De plus, dans les FAs nous avons observé que PRL-3 régule spécifiquement l’agrégation de l’Itg β1 mais pas celle de l’Itg β3, ainsi nous émettons l’hypothèse que cette régulation par PRL-3 serait différentielle entre les intégrines et dépendante de la MEC. Dans le MU, la migration accrue des cellules par PRL-3 peut également être expliquée par une accumulation de la métalloprotéase MT1-MMP/MMP14 à la surface des cellules. Cette protéine transmembranaire est responsable de la dégradation de différents substrats de la MEC et peut-être trouvée dans les FAs. Un travail auquel j’ai contribué, a montré que PRL-3 favoriserait l’accumulation de MMP14 à la membrane plasmique par l’accélération de son trafic vésiculaire. Enfin durant la dernière année de ma thèse, nous avons entrepris de tester les effets de la pentamidine, un antiparasitaire aux propriétés anti-cancéreuses, sur l’inhibition de l’activité de PRL-3. In vivo, la pentamidine induirait une inhibition moyenne de la croissance tumorale dans un modèle de xénogreffes murins de MU et de métastases. Les essais in vitro sont encore en cours. / Uveal Melanoma (UM) is a rare tumor that affects around 500 French people each year. Despite a successful treatment of the primary tumor, 50% of patients develop metastasis primarily to the liver in the years following diagnosis. Currently, systemic adjuvant therapy has been unsuccessful for effective treatment. As such, identifying genes involved in both prognosis and metastasis is important for a better understanding of this disease and in turn for designing better treatment strategies. Our group previously identified that overexpression of the gene encoding PRL-3/PTP4A3, a protein tyrosine phosphatase, is highly correlated with metastatic tumor progression and predicts poor prognosis in patients with UM. It is also known that PRL3 is implicated in the metastatic process of various cancers. Overexpression of PRL-3, but not the inactive mutant of PRL3 (C104S), in an ocular melanoma cell line significantly increased cell migration in vitro and invasion in vivo, suggesting a direct role of PRL3 in the metastatic process in UM. We also showed that FTI-277, a farnesyltransferase inhibitor that prevents PRL-3 anchorage to the plasma membrane, abolishes PRL-3-induced UM cell migration on collagen I, suggesting that PRL-3 anchorage is important for cell migration. The aim of my thesis was to identify intracellular, and in particular, membrane substrates that could play a role in UM metastasis. My results show that PRL3 overexpression in UM cells prevents both the spreading of cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM), and the formation of large focal adhesions structures (FA) involving integrin β1 (Itg b1).These biological effects are PRL-3-activity and anchorage dependent. We show that PRL-3 interacts with and dephosphorylates Itg b1 on cytoplasmic threonine 788 and 789, residues that are known to be involved in cell adhesion. Our results identify PRL-3 as a new regulator of cell adhesion structures to the ECM via the regulation of Itg b1 and most likely the focal adhesion kinase (FAK). In FA, we observed that PRL-3 specifically regulates the aggregation of Itg b1 but does not affect integrin β3, so we suppose that this regulation could be specific to certain integrins. In UM cells, the PRL-3-induced cell migration could also be explained by membrane accumulation of the metalloprotease MT1-MMP/MMP14 in the presence of PRL3. This transmembrane proteinase is responsible for ECM degradation and can be found in FA. Moreover, we demonstrated that the vesicular trafficking of MT1-MMP is accelerated in the presence of active PRL-3 but not in presence of the inactive mutant of PRL-3 (C104S). During the last year of my thesis, another aspect of my PhD project was to study the biological effect of pentamidine, an antiparasitic which is known to inhibit the phosphatase activity of PRLs in vitro. In vivo, we show that pentamidine treatment induces a decrease of tumor growth in a UM patient-derived xerograph model. Overall, the results of my thesis suggest that PRL-3 plays an important role in UM metastasis.

Fundamental to cell adhesion and migration, integrins are large heterodimeric membrane proteins that link the extracellular matrix to the actin cytoskeleton. Uniquely, these adhesion receptors mediate inside-out signal transduction, whereby extracellular adhesion is activated from within the cell by talin, a large cytoskeletal protein that binds to the cytoplasmic tail of the β integrin subunit via its PTB-like F3 domain. Features of the interface between talin1 and small β3 fragments only have been described previously. Through NMR studies of full-length integrin β tails, we have found that β tails differ widely in their interactions with different talin isoforms. The muscle-specific β1D/talin2 complex exhibited particularly high affinity, leading to the X-ray crystal structure of the β1D tail/talin2 F2-F3 complex. Further NMR and biological experiments demonstrated that integrin activation is induced by a concerted series of interactions between the talin F3 domain and the β tail and between the talin F2 domain and the cell membrane. Additional studies revealed the structural determinants of tight talin2/β1D binding and the basis of more general differences between β1 and β3 talin binding. NMR studies were also performed on tyrosine-phosphorylated integrin tails binding to the PTB domains of talin1 and Dok1, an inhibitor of integrin activation; these revealed that phosphorylation can inhibit integrin activation by increasing the affinity of the β tail for talin competitors. Key residues governing this switch were identified, and proteins were engineered with reversed affinities, offering potentially useful biological tools. Taken together, these results reveal the remarkable complexity of structural features that enable talin and its competitors to mediate this important form of transmembrane signalling.

Submitted by KELVIN FURTADO LIMA null (kelvinf.lima@hotmail.com) on 2016-05-02T17:44:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Kelvin.pdf: 3687789 bytes, checksum: d826d05398d0eb1bdb80f3a5d8770738 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Felipe Augusto Arakaki (arakaki@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-05-04T18:32:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_kf_me_araiq.pdf: 3687789 bytes, checksum: d826d05398d0eb1bdb80f3a5d8770738 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-04T18:32:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_kf_me_araiq.pdf: 3687789 bytes, checksum: d826d05398d0eb1bdb80f3a5d8770738 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-15 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Os diferentes tipos de cânceres estão entre as principais causas de morbidade e mortalidade em todo mundo, contabilizando 8,2 milhões de óbitos no ano de 2012. Dentre eles, o câncer de pulmão é o mais recorrente, sendo que o subtipo denominado câncer pulmonar de células não-pequenas (non-small cell lung cancer – NSCLC) é diagnosticado em 85% dos casos. Dada a importância epidemiológica do câncer pulmonar, associado ao platô atingido pelos tratamentos com quimioterapia e radioterapia, novas estratégias terapêuticas têm sido buscadas e neste contexto, o peptídeo vasoativo Angiotensina-(1-7) [Ang-(1-7)] tem se mostrado bastante promissor. Além da participação em uma gama de processo fisiológicos no organismo, a Ang-(1-7) está sendo cada vez mais exploradas nos processos patológicos devidos suas funções vasodilatadora, anti-hipertensiva, anti-proliferativa e antitumoral. Outros estudos apontam ainda que uma melhor compreensão da regulação gênica nos processo tumorais poderia direcionar o desenvolvimento de outros métodos terapêuticos para o câncer de pulmão. Neste sentido, os microRNAs assumem posição ímpar por sua capacidade regulatória pós-transcriocional de vários genes, a citar o miR-21-5p superexpresso em vários tipos tumorais, incluindo o NSCLC. Portanto, o presente trabalho investigou os efeitos bioquímicos, moleculares e fisiológicos decorrentes do tratamento da linhagem celular tumoral A549 com Ang-(1-7), concomitantemente a análises comparativas dos efeitos da superexpressão do miR-21-5p nas células tumorais. Para isso foram utilizados os grupos celulares A549 controle e tratamento [10-7 M de Ang-(1-7)], e os clones A549-pEP-miR-Controle e A549-pEP-miR-21-5p. Análises bioquímicas mostraram que a presença do heptapeptídeo no grupo tratamento, e as condições de cultura dos clones estudados, causaram um aumento na síntese de lactato pelas células A549. Foi observado também que a Ang-(1-7) retarda o crescimento celular. Análises de expressão gênica não apontaram ativação do processo apoptótico em nenhuma das condições estudadas, entretanto o peptídeo Ang-(1-7) modula positivamente a expressão do gene tjp1 e negativamente a transcrição dos genes itgb8 e mmp-8, sugerindo que o tratamento celular com o heptapeptídeo fortaleça as interações celulares e dificulte os processo de migração e invasão celular. Estes dados são corroborados pelo ensaio de cicatrização da ferida o qual evidenciou que a Ang-(1-7) diminui a taxa de migração celular em comparação ao grupo controle. Por sua vez, a superexpressão do miR-21-5p intensifica consideravelmente a capacidade invasiva das células tumorais como observado no ensaio da gota de agarose. Conjuntamente, os resultados apontam para o potencial terapêutico da Ang-(1-7) no controle dos processos de adesão, migração e invasão celular, e corrobora o papel do miR-21-5p na evolução e intensificação dos processos tumorais. / The different types of cancers are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, accounting for 8.2 million deaths in 2012. Among them, lung cancer is the most frequent, and the subtype called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is diagnosed in 85% of cases. Given the epidemiological importance of lung cancer, associated with the plateau reached by chemotherapy and radiation therapies, new therapeutic strategies have been pursued and in this context, the vasoactive peptide Angiotensin-(1-7) [Ang- (1-7)] has shown quite promising. Besides participating in a range of physiological process in the body, Ang- (1-7) is being increasingly exploited in pathological processes due to its vasodilator, anti-hypertensive, anti-proliferative and anti-tumor functions. Other studies also indicate that a better understanding of gene regulation in tumor process could direct the development of other therapeutic methods for lung cancer. In this sense, microRNAs assume unique position due to its post-transcriocional regulatory capacity of several genes, for exemple the miR-21-5p upregulated in several tumor types, including NSCLC. Therefore, this study investigated the biochemical, molecular and physiological effects of Ang-(1-7) treatment on tumor cell line A549, concurrently to the comparative analysis of the effects of upregulation of miR-21-5p in tumor cells. In order to do this, the cell groups A549 control and treatment [10-7 M of Ang-(1-7)], and the A549-pEP-miR-control and A549-pEP-miR-21-5p clones were used. Biochemical analyzes showed that the presence of the heptapeptide in treatment group, and the culture conditions of the studied clones, caused an increase in lactate synthesis on A549 cells. It was also observed that Ang-(1-7) slows cell growth. Gene expression analysis showed no activation of apoptotic process in any of the conditions studied, though the peptide Ang-(1-7) positively modulates the expression of tjp1 gene and negatively the transcription of itgb8 and mmp-8 genes, suggesting that the cell treatment with the heptapeptide strengthen cell interactions and prevents cell migration and invasion. These data are corroborated by wound healing assay which showed that Ang-(1-7) decreases cell migration rate compared to the control group. In turn, the upregulation of miR-21-5p considerably enhances tumor cells invasiveness as observed in the agarose spot assay. Collectively, the results point to Ang-(1-7) therapeutic potential in controling cell adhesion, migration and invasion, and supports miR-21-5p role in the evolution and enhancement of tumor processes. / CNPq: 132514/2014-1

Improving the repopulation potential of human umbilical cord blood (UCB) haemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) remains a paramount goal in HSC transplantation (HSCT) therapy. This implies enhancing the homing and engraftment potential of UCB-CD34+CD133+ cells to the bone marrow (BM). Although an array of molecules continues to be identified as ‘key’ homing molecules, the molecular mechanisms controlling HSC homing are still not fully understood. The regulatory implications of hypoxia in the BM, with the concomitant stabilisation of hypoxia inducible transcription factor-1α (HIF-1α), are becoming more apparent, yet at the commencement of this thesis no study had explored whether hypoxia induced signalling can be adopted to regulate the homing and engraftment of transplanted HSCs. The aim of this DPhil project was thus to investigate whether hypoxic conditions as detected in the BM influence the adhesion of UBC-CD133+ cells to osteoblasts, BM stromal cells and BM endothelial cells-60 (BMEC-60), as well as their transmigration towards chemokine SDF-1α across BMEC-60. Increasing the exposure of UCB-CD133+ cells to 1.5% O2 doubled the percentage of transmigrating cells (p<0.05), and while hypoxia stimulated UCB-CD133+ cells preferentially adhered to IL-1β stimulated BMEC-60, their adhesion to non-stimulated (BMEC-60) was significantly improved (p<0.001). To help unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms, we attempted to examine the potential involvement of hypoxia regulated scaffolding protein HEF-1/NEDD9/Cas-L (HEF-1) in the increased percentage of migrating UCB-CD133+ cells after hypoxia pre-conditioning. The role of HEF-1 in HSCs is unexplored, and its multifunctional contribution in a variety of processes including cell migration, attachment and invasion make HEF-1 a prime candidate as a contributing homing molecule. After identifying a suitable short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) sequence to knockdown HEF-1, generating lentiviral (LV)-particles in house and optimising transduction protocols, HEF-1 knockdown was achieved in haemopoietic model cell lines KG-1 and KG-1A (KG-1/KG-1A–HEF1). Significantly decreased KG-1A–HEF1 cell adhesion to non-stimulated BMEC-60 was detected. Together, these studies provide a promising platform to further explore the role of HEF-1 in hypoxia induced UCB-CD133+ cell transmigration towards the key homing molecule SDF-1α.