Although the molecular mechanisms underlying the onset and progression of cancer has been unraveled to a great extend, cancer continues to remain a leading cause of death around the world. Clinical efficacy of the existing anticancer drugs are largely compromised by the inherent and acquired resistance of cancer cell types and the severe side effects evoked by chemotherapeutic agents. Hence, the search for novel anticancer drugs with minimum side effects remains an active area of cancer research. Although molecular targeted drugs are preferred over the conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, the screening of natural compounds with cytotoxic potentialities continues as they can serve as lead structures for the development of tumor selective anticancer drugs. Plants and microorganisms have been the prominent sources of therapeutic agents. Microorganisms being readily renewable, inexhaustible sources of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites are preferred over plants as sources of bioactive compounds. Endophytes are microorganisms that reside within the living tissue of host plant and they enhance the survival value of the host plant by mediating various stress tolerance mechanisms. Endophytic fungi have gained attention as potential sources of bioactive secondary metabolites following the discovery of a taxol producing endophytic fungus Taxomyces adrenae, from Taxus brevifolia. Moreover, endophytes occupy a unique biological niche in which they maintain a balanced interaction with the host organism and other co-inhabiting microorganisms. All these factors contribute to the chemical diversity of the metabolites they produce. Plants restricted to extreme or unique habitats or those with ethnobotanical value are likely to lodge endophytes that possess a unique hoard of secondarymetabolites. Saraca asoca is a traditionalmedicinal plant with its occurrence restricted to countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Malaysia. The purpose of the present study is to explore the endophytic fungal population associated with S. asoca in search of novel anticancer lead structures. S. asoca was found to house a diverse endophytic fungal population belonging to 37 different species. Identification of the fungal isolates was based on ITS (internal transcribed spacer region) sequence analysis as well as colony and spore characteristics. The organic extracts of all fungal species were assessed for their in vitro cytotoxicities in three human cancer cell lines, HeLa, HepG2 and PC3 byMTT assay. 18 species exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activities, among which Pestalotiopsis sp. 6 exhibited themost significant cytotoxicity. The strain with second highest activity was Lasiodiplodia theobromae. In order to identify the active principle present in the organic extracts of Pestalotiopsis sp. 6 and L. theobromae, the organic extracts were chromatographed on TLC plates and individual compounds were recovered by scraping off from the TLC plates and extracting with methanol. The cytotoxicity assay of the TLC purified compounds suggested the cytotoxic activity of Pestalotiopsis sp.6 to be a synergetic effect of two or more compounds whereas the cytotoxicity of L. theobromae organic extract was largely due to a single compound. Hence the active principle present in L. theobromae organic extract was purified by bioassay - guided column chromatography. Repeated chromatography of the crude extract using three silica gel columns resulted in the isolation of anticancer compound. Based on the analysis of ESI-MS, IR, NMR and UV spectral data, the isolated compound was identified as a novel steroidal saponin, cholestan-3-O-¯-Dglucopyranoside (cholestanol glucoside - CG). The in vitro cytotoxic effects of CG towards seven human cancer cell lines, HeLa, HepG2, PC3, U251,MCF 7, OVCAR3 and A549 were examined. Among the cell lines screened, HeLa cells weremost vulnerable to CG treatment, with an IC50 value of 3.2 ¹M. Hence themode of cell death induction in HeLa cells by CG was further investigated. Analysis of cell cycle progression by propidium iodide (PI) staining revealed that CG arrests the cells in S phase of cell cycle prior to the induction of cell death. The morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis were investigated by nuclear staining, DNA fragmentation assay and Annexin V-FITC/ PI dual staining. All these results suggested that CG effectively induced apoptosis in HeLa cells in a concentration dependent manner. It was also found that CG treatment induced remarkable ROS generation and mitochondrial membrane potential loss. The pretreatment of cells with an antioxidant, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), blocked CG induced ROS generation, mitochondrialmembrane depolarization and apoptotic cell death. Hence it could be concluded that CG kills the cancer cells by augmenting their basal oxidative stress and hence is less likely to be toxic to normal cells. Moreover, a high Bax to Bcl-2 ratio, high levels of Apaf-1 and p53, activation of procaspase-3 and procaspase-9 and cleavage of PARP were observed in CG treated HeLa cells. Taken together, our results suggested that CG induced apoptosis in HeLa cells via ROS mediated mitochondria dependent pathway. Biosynthesis of secondarymetabolites by filamentous fungi is influenced by the availability of nutrient factors. Therefore, it is essential to optimize the culturemedium components to ensure a maximum and consistent yield of desired metabolite by the fungal isolate. We designed a chemically defined production medium for CG production by L. theobromae. Carbon source, nitrogen source and microelements in the production medium were further optimized in stationary flask cultures to improve the mycelial growth and yield of CG by L. theobromae. The conventional one-factor at a time (OFAT)method was employed for the optimization of carbon and nitrogen sourceswhose contribution effects towards the final yield are large. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for the optimization of microelements. Optimization of culturemedium enhanced the yield of CG from 10mg L¡1 to 50mg L¡1. Various secondarymetabolites are produced by organisms in response to different stress conditions. This knowledge has been exploited in plant cell culture systems to increase the yield of particular secondary metabolites by artificial implementation of stress conditions. We investigated the effect of oxidative, osmotic and heat shock stresses on the production of CG by L. theobromae. Heat shock and osmotic stresses in liquid cultures were found to enhance the yield of CG by 1.2-fold, relative to the controls. Oxidative stress by both menadione and H2O2 enhanced the yield by 1.8-fold compared to the controls. Thus oxidative stress proved to be an efficient enhancer of CG production by L. theobromae. These findings ensure a large scale, cost-effective production of CG.

This study aims at tackling some of the problems often encountered in photostability testing and liquid formulation development. Three anti-cancer drugs will be employed as models; Dacarbazine (DBZ) has well established photostability issues, Axitinib (AXI) and Sunitinib (SUT) are two new drugs only commercially available in solid dosage forms. In ethanol, the photokinetics of these drugs were well described by the newly proposed Φ-order kinetic mathematical model. This has confirmed the photoreversible character of AXI and SUT’s and unimolecular photoreaction of DBZ’s photodegradations. Also, the Φ-order kinetics is proven to describe them better than the usually used classic thermal reaction orders. In aqueous solution, the drugs were found to undergo thermal and photochemical complex degradations, involving at least 3 photoproducts. A new photokinetic approach has been proposed in this work to solving and unravelling the attributes of such complex mechanisms. For the first time, the quantum yields (QY) of the three drugs were determined and found to increase with irradiation wavelength. SUT’s QY were comparable in ethanol and water (QY460 = 0.02), DBZ was found to be more photoefficient in water (QY330 = 0.04 and 0.1, respectively) and AXI in water (QY330 = 0.06 and 0.03). Φ-order kinetics’ potential for the development of reliable actinometers of the three drugs, without prior knowledge of unknown reaction parameters, has also been established. A general equation to describe the isotherm of a (Gn:Hm) guest-host multicomponent complex was proposed in this work to palliate the lack of a strategy for characterising nanosponge-drug complexes. It provides information on both stiochiometry and association constant of the complex. The results indicate that hydrophobic AXI forms a 1:0.8 complex, indicating the possibility of multiple association sites and/or different types of binding. The newly developed AXI/nanosponge liquid formulation has significantly increased solubility (5000-fold) and thermal stability. Furthermore, the photostability of DBZ and SUT were considerably improved by using a strategy based on light-absorption competitors. Their initial velocities reduced from 10 and 3 s-1 (respectively) to 1 and 0.13 s-1. The successful application of these methods to the model anti-cancer drugs has set out new approaches that might be found useful for future treatments of photodegradation data, development of drug-actinometers and liquid formulations of drugs.

La recherche contre le cancer est aujourd’hui tournée vers les thérapies ciblées. Dans ce contexte, la nucléoline et la nucléophosmine sont fortement impliquées dans la croissance tumorale et l’angiogenèse associée et surexprimées dans les cellules tumorales et endothéliales activées. Elles apparaissent donc comme des cibles de choix. Le pseudopeptide HB-19 lie la nucléoline de surface, inhibe la croissance cellulaire de nombreuses lignées de cellules tumorales et induit la mort de ces cellules tumorales par apoptose. D’autre part, il inhibe, in vitro et in vivo, plusieurs étapes de l’angiogenèse tumorale. Ces deux activités mènent, in vivo, à l’inhibition de la croissance tumorale dans de nombreux modèles de croissance tumorale chez la souris. Dans le but d’améliorer les activités observées avec HB- 19, des pseudopeptides dérivés de ce dernier ont été synthétisés. Ainsi le NucAnt 6L (N6L) montre une activité 5 à 10 fois supérieure à celle de HB-19 selon les modèles. Son activité anti-métastatique a également été démontrée. L’étude du mécanisme d’action des pseudopeptides a permis d’identifier deux nouveaux récepteurs: les héparanes sulfates et la nucléophosmine. L’importance du TIMP-3 dans son activité anti-métastatique a également été soulignée. Enfin, aucune toxicité n’a été observée chez les souris aux doses employées et la synthèse de N6L peut être effectuée à l’échelle industrielle. N6L apparaît donc comme un composé prometteur pour une thérapie anti-cancéreuse / The cancer research is nowadays interested in targeting therapies. In this context, nucleolin and nucleophosmin are proteins highly involved in tumor growth and angiogenesis and over-expressed in activated endothelial and tumor cells. So, they appear as very promising targets. The pseudopeptide HB-19 binds to cell surface-expressed nucleolin, inhibits different tumor cell growth and induces cell death by apoptosis. Furthermore, it inhibits, in vitro and in vivo, several steps of angiogenesis. These two activities lead, in vivo, to the suppression of tumor growth and angiogenesis in several mice models. In order to improve the activities observed with HB-19, new compounds derived from HB-19 were synthesized. So, NucAnt 6L (N6L) show 5 to 10 fold stronger anti-tumoral activity than HB- 19 depending of the model. Study of their action mechanism allowed us to identify two new receptors: nucleophosmin and heparan sulfates. The importance of TIMP-3 in anti-metastatic activity has also been highlighted. Finally, no toxicity has been observed in mice treated with N6L which can easily industrially be synthesized. N6L appears to be a promising compound for anti-cancer therapies

Resumé<p><p>Le cancer reste une maladie grave car il représente une des causes principales de décès dans les pays développés. Plus d'un tiers de cancers solides réagi très faiblement à la chimiothérapie conventionnelle et/ou développe rapidement une résistance au traitement. Des thérapies ciblées, utilisées en association avec les traitements conventionnels, pourraient augmenter la survie des patients. C’est dans le cadre des thérapies ciblées que ce travail de thèse s’inscrit.<p><p>Nous nous sommes intéressés à synthétiser de nouvelles molécules qui pourraient être efficaces contre les cancers résistants à l'apoptose et donc aux traitements conventionnels. La principale cible de notre projet était la kinase DYRK1A, qui a été décrite comme étant impliquée dans la prolifération cellulaire et la résistance à l'apoptose. Dans ce but, une série de nouvelles molécules, principalement des dérivés de la tétrahydro-β-carboline, a été synthétisée et leurs propriétés antitumorales ont été caractérisées in vitro. En effet, ces structures ressemblent à celle de l’harmicine, un alcaloïde apparenté à l’harmine, l’inhibiteur de DYRK1A le plus sélectif et le plus puissant connu à ce jour. <p><p> Une méthodologie "one-pot" très efficace, développée au Laboratoire de Chimie Organique (ULB), a été utilisée pour obtenir les squelettes de type tétrahydro-β-carboline. Le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse détaille cette méthodologie et décrit la librairie de 47 dérivés qui ont été synthétisés. <p><p>Un second objectif de ce travail était de développer une version énantiosélective de cette méthodologie afin de la rendre encore plus intéressante. Cette partie, décrite dans le troisième chapitre, a été réalisée avec succès en collaboration avec l’Unité de Recherche en Chimie Organique et Macromoléculaire de l'Université du Havre (Le Havre, France). Les expériences que nous avons réalisées ont permis, non seulement d'obtenir le composé le plus actif avec un bon excès énantiomérique, mais également de mieux comprendre les aspects mécanistiques qui constituent la base de l'énantiosélectivité. <p><p>L'évaluation des propriétés anticancereuses des composés synthétisés est ensuite détaillée dans le quatrième chapitre. Les analyses toxicologiques et pharmacologiques ont montré que trois molécules présentent une bonne activité antitumorale in vitro avec une sélectivité prometteuse entre les cellules cancéreuses et les cellules normales. D’une manière inattendue, les tests biologiques plus poussés, que nous avons réalisés, ont suggéré que ces molécules n'agissent pas comme des inhibiteurs de kinases. Elles interfèrent en fait sur la prolifération cellulaire, en ciblant des facteurs de transcription spécifiques, par des mécanismes qui doivent encore être élucidés. Ces expériences biologiques ont été réalisées en collaboration avec le Laboratoire de Toxicologie et Cancérologie Expérimentale (ULB).<p><p>/<p><p>Summary<p><p>Cancer is a devastating disease which remains one of the major causes of death in developed countries. More than one third of adult solid cancers respond very poorly to chemotherapy and/or rapidly develop resistance to treatment. Targeted therapies, used in combination with conventional treatments could be used to increase the survival of cancer patients.<p><p>In this work we were interested in developing new molecules related to the targeted therapy concept that could be effective against cancer types that are resistant to apoptosis and thereby to conventional treatments. The leading target of our project was the DYRK1A kinase, which was described as being involved in cell proliferation and resistance to apoptosis. For this purpose, a series of new molecules, mainly tetrahydro β carboline derivatives, has been synthesized and their antitumoral properties were characterized in vitro. Indeed these structures resemble harmicine, an alkaloid similar to harmine, the most selective and potent DYRK1A inhibitor known to date.<p><p> An efficient “one-pot” methodology, developed in the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique (ULB) was used to obtain the tetrahydro β carboline scaffolds. Chapter II of this work describes the use of this methodology for the synthesis of a library of 47 derivatives.<p><p>A second goal of this work was to further improve this methodology by developing an enantioselective version. This part, described in chapter III, was carried out successfully in collaboration with the Research Unit in Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry of Université du Havre (Le Havre, France). The experiments we have performed enabled us not only to obtain the most active compound with a good enantiomeric excess, but also to gain insight of the mechanism responsible for the enantioselectivity.<p><p>The fourth chapter details the evaluation of the anti cancer properties of the synthesised compounds. The pharmacological and toxicological analyses showed that 3 molecules display actual anti-tumor activity in vitro with a promising selectivity between cancerous and normal cells. Surprisingly, further biological assays we have performed suggested that these molecules do not act as kinase inhibitors but influence cell proliferation through the targeting of specific transcription factors by mechanisms that remain to be deciphered. The biological experiments were performed in collaboration with the Cancerology and Experimental Toxicology Laboratory (ULB).<p><p><p><p><p><p> / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Deux nouvelles familles de complexes de cuivre(I) cationiques, de formules [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] et [Cu(P^P)(N^N)][PF6], ont été synthétisées avec des ligands 2,2’ bis pyridyl pontés, chélates à six chaînons, facilement modulables. Ces complexes présentent des émissions à l’état solide centrées entre 455 et 520 nm (bleu à vert), avec de larges décalages de Stokes et des rendements quantiques pouvant atteindre 0,86. De plus, l’émission via un phénomène de fluorescence retardée activée thermiquement (TADF) a été prouvée pour les complexes [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X]. Les premiers scintillateurs plastiques dopés avec des complexes de cuivre(I) détectant les radiations nucléaires de type gammas ont été obtenus avec des complexes de formule générale [Cu(P^P)(N^N)][PF6]. Les complexes de formule [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] ont permis l’obtention des premières Cellules Electrochimiques Luminescentes (LECs) émettant dans le bleu et incorporant des complexes de cuivre(I). Enfin, les complexes de formule [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] à ligand 2,2’ dipyridylamine présentent une activité cytotoxique envers différentes lignées de cellules cancéreuses et apportent la possibilité d’une action ciblée sur les cellules tumorales via l’ajout d’un vecteur. La polyvalence de ces complexes de cuivre(I) repose sur les ligands 2,2’-bis-pyridyl pontés, chélates à six chaînons, dont la synthèse est facile d’accès et les propriétés électroniques et structurales sont modulables. / New cationic copper(I) complexes of general formula [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] and [Cu(P^P)(N^N)][PF6] were developed with 6-membered-ring 2,2’-bis-pyridyl derivatives as ligand. These complexes exhibited blue (420 nm) to green (520 nm) emissions in solid state, with large Stokes shifts and photoluminescence quantum yields up to 0.86. Furthermore, the emission of the [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] complexes via a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) was demonstrated. The first plastic scintillators incorporating copper(I) complexes and detecting gamma radiations were obtained with [Cu(P^P)(N^N)][PF6] complexes. Application of the [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] complexes to the LEC technology led to the first copper(I)-based blue emitting device. In the last chapter, we also demonstrated that copper(I) complexes [Cu(NHC)(N^N)][X] bearing a 2,2’-dipyridylamine as N^N ligand exhibited high cytotoxycity against different cancer cells lines. These complexes paved the way for the design of a new type of copper(I) anti-cancer agents with the opportunity to increase the selectivity against cancer cells via a vectorization of the N^N ligand. The versatility of these copper(I) complexes demonstrated in this work relied on the easy to handle and highly modular 2,2’-bis-pyridyl ligands.

NF-κB is a transcription factor protein complex that plays an important role in some cancers and inflammatory responses. It can enhance the proliferation rate, reduce apoptosis, as well as create more blood flow to ensure the survival of cancer. Thus blocking the NF-κB pathway has potential therapeutic benefit. We designed a series of compounds based on quinazoline scaffold pharmacophore model which may have high binding affinity with p50 subunit of NF-κB. The compound series with phenyl substitution at position 2 of quinazoline proved to be more effective at inhibiting NF-κB function both theoretically and experimentally. These compounds also reduce the proliferation of numerous tumor cell lines and the mean GI50 for representative compound 2a is 2.88μM on NCI 60 cell lines. Compound 2a can induce significant apoptosis at the concentration of 1μM. The exploration of the mechanism of action of these compounds found that 2a does not inhibit kinases upstream of NF-κB and does not inhibit p65 translocation from the cytosol to the nucleus as 2b does. However 2a inhibits NF-κB dependent Luciferase expression as well as NF-κB target genes better than 2b. This may suggest that 2a inhibits the NF-κB pathway by directly blocking gene transcription, while 2b acts at cytoplasmic stage.

No description available.

Utveckling av polymer baserade läkemedelsbärare i nanostorlek har blivit allt viktigare för att effektivisera behandling och diagnosering av olika sjukdomar, speciellt cancer. Flera läkemedel som används i kemoterapi har bristfälliga egenskaper som låg löslighet i vatten, oönskad nedbrytbara till dess inaktiva form, och distribution i stora volymer till oönskade organ p.g.a. dess icke-selektiva förmåga. Nanopartiklar är små partiklar med diameter 1-500 nm som genom passiv/aktiv transport kan passera olika biologiska barriärer och transportera läkemedel i optimala mängder till specifika celler. Denna selektiva transport bidrar till ökad terapeutiskt index och minskning av toxiska effekter i övriga delar av kroppen. Hyperförgrenade linjär-dendritiska hybrider är en subgrupp av dendritiska polymer som har stor potential att användas som byggstenar i utvecklingen av läkemedelsbärare. I detta projekt producerades ett bibliotek av hyperförgrenade linjär-dendritiska material via Fischer esterifikation reaktionen som är en snabb, billig och uppskalningsbar produktionsmetod. Vidare post funktionaliserades materialen med allyl grupper för produktion av nano geler genom UV-inducerad korslänkning och vidare funktionalisering. Samtliga producerade hyperförgrenade linjär-dendritiska material hade förmågan att bilda miceller i vatten. Materialen med bäst micelle bildningsförmåga användes för att kemiskt korslänka dem och producera nano geler. Nano gelernas inre del funktionaliserades framgångsrikt med tre olika funktionella grupper; katjoniska, anjoniska och hydrofoba via resterande fria allyler. Detta påvisar att dessa dendritiska nano geler har potential att bära olika material som hydrofobiska läkemedel eller genetiskt material. Dom producerade nano gelerna hade en hydrodynamisk volym inom intervallet 124-200 nm. Detta är fördelaktigt då dem kan transporteras till tumörområdet via ökad permeabilitet och retention, också kallad EPR effekten, utan att initiera ett immunologiskt svar eller filtreras från blodomloppet via njuren. / The development of nano- based drug carriers is of high importance in anti-cancer treatment as anticancer drugs suffers from limitations as low aqueous solubility, non-selective targeting, off-target degradation and low therapeutic concentrations at target site. Hyperbranched polymers are potential candidates as drug carrier due to its unique properties as globular shape, high number of functional groups and high degree of branching. In addition, hyperbranched polymers are synthesized via one-step polymerization reaction with high yields, low costs and good scale-up possibilities. In this project a library of hyperbranched linear-dendritic hybrid materials based of 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid (bis-MPA) and monofunctional poly (ethylene glycol) (mPEG) was synthesized via the Fischer esterification reaction. The materials were then post functionalised with hydrophobic allyl groups. The materials self-assembled into micelles in water and candidates with best self-assembly ability were used to fabricate dendritic nanogels by UV-induced cross-linking. The formed dendritic nanogels obtained a hydrodynamic volume between 124-200 nm, which indicates that these dendritic nanogels can be used as drug carrier and accumulate at target-site via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. The dendritic nanogels inner core was also successfully attached with cationic, hydrophobic and anionic groups respectively. This confirmed that the dendritic nanogels have the potential to encapsulate different types of cargo such as DNA or hydrophobic drugs in the inner core.

No description available.

Animal testing is still the common method to test the efficacy of new drugs, but tissue engineered in vitro models are becoming more acceptable for replacing and reducing animal testing in anti-cancer drug screening by developing in vitro three-dimensional (3D) tumour models for anti-cancer drug testing. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) culture methods were developed to mimic the tumour microenvironment. 3D culturing is to seed, maintain and expand cultured cells in three-dimensional space, in contrast to the traditional two-dimensional (2D) method in which the cells attach to the bottom of culture containers as monolayers. To mimic the intercellular interplay for tumour study, cell co-culture was applied. In this thesis, perfusion culture showed a better homeostasis for 3D tumour model growth over 17 days, with a more controllable working platform and a more reliable response-dose correlation for data interpretation. In the Matrigel sandwich system, the co-culture of breast cancer cells and endothelial cells demonstrated the morphology featuring a vascular network and tumour structures, with the thickness of the three-dimensional structure around 100µm and tubule length 200-400 µm, and maintained for 10 days. The comparisons studies between Matrigel sandwich and other methods suggest that though not fully characterised, Matrigel is still a valuable scaffold choice for developing co-culture 3D tumour model. Finally, the combination of perfusion and co-culture showed the potential of applying this model in angiogenesis assay, with a drug response profile combining cell viability and morphology to mimic in vivo tumour physiology.