Hsp90 (heat shock protein 90) est une protéine chaperonne ubiquitaire et conservée impliquée dans le repliement et la réparation de protéines dites « clientes ». Parmi ces protéines, de nombreuses sont impliquées dans des phénomènes oncogéniques, faisant de hsp90 une cible d’intérêt dans le traitement du cancer. Hsp90 est constituée de trois domaines, un domaine N-terminal site de l’hydrolyse de l’ATP, nécessaire à sa fonction ; un domaine intermédiaire où vient se fixer la protéine cliente et un domaine C-terminal impliqué dans la dimérisation, étape indispensable pour le repliement de la protéine cliente. De nombreux inhibiteurs ont été synthétisés en ciblant ces différents domaines. Les inhibiteurs N-terminaux sont efficaces, à l’instar de la Geldanamycine en termes d’activité anti-tumorale mais des effets secondaires ainsi que des résistances au traitement ont limité leur utilisation en pratique clinique. En effet, l’inhibition N-terminale induit une réponse au stress caractérisée par une augmentation de hsp90 et de ses co-chaperonnes, souvent associée à une résistance au traitement et un pronostic défavorable. La novobiocine, un antibiotique coumarinique, est capable d’inhiber le domaine C-terminal de hsp90, sans induire de réponse au stress. Ainsi de nombreux dérivés de cette molécule ont été synthétisés, parmi lesquels on trouve le 6BrCaQ. Cette molécule induit l’apoptose et le blocage dans le cycle cellulaire sur plusieurs lignées cellulaires (dont MCF-7 et MDA-MB-231) et provoque la dégradation de plusieurs protéines clientes impliquées dans le développement tumoral mais sa faible solubilité limite son administration in vivo.Dans cette thèse, une forme liposomale du 6BrCaQ a été développée et étudiée sur des lignées cellulaires de cancer de prostate, de sein et de leucémie aigüe myéloïde in vitro et in vivo sur un modèle orthotopique de cancer du sein (MDA-MB-231 luc-GFP). Le 6BrCaQ liposomal est capable d’ induire de l’apoptose, de bloquer le cycle cellulaire sur différentes lignées cellulaires (PC-3, MDA-MB-231 et MOLM-13) mais également de ralentir la migration cellulaire sur PC-3 (test de comblement de blessure). De plus, le 6BrCaQ liposomal entre en synergie avec la doxorubicine (cellules PC-3) et la daunorubicine (cellules MOLM-13). Au niveau moléculaire, les liposomes de 6BrCaQ modifient l’expression protéique de Hsp90 sans modifier celle d’Hsp70 sur PC-3 alors que les gènes codant pour les Hsp70 semblent être légèrement induits dans MDA-MB-231. Les résultats in vivo ont montré un ralentissement de la croissance tumorale sur un modèle de cancer du sein orthotopique (MDA-MB-231-luc2-GFP) dès 13 jours de traitement pour une dose de 1 mg/kg injectée une fois par semaine. Des analyses histologiques ont révélé une augmentation de la proportion des zones nécrotiques dans le groupe traité par rapport au contrôle et une diminution significative de la prolifération cellulaire (marquage au KI67) intra-tumorale.Par ailleurs, Hsp90 possède également des isoformes et des analogues localisés dans des organites intracellulaires, parmi lesquelles, TRAP-1, localisée au niveau de la mitochondrie, impliquée dans la rgulation du métabolisme mitochondrial et qui pourrait jouer un rôle dans la progression tumorale et les métastases. Le déqualinium (DQ) est capable de cibler la mitochondrie. Dans une seconde partie du travail, des liposomes encapsulant le DQ ont été formulés dans le but de vectoriser le 6BrCaQ vers la mitochondrie. Toutefois, face à la difficulté d’encapsuler le DQ dans des liposomes, une étude de physico-chimie sur l’interaction DQ/liposomes a été mise en place pour comprendre comment le DQ agit sur les bicouches phospholipidiques. Cette étude a révélé que, malgré une capacité de ciblage mitochondrial des liposomes, le DQ était difficile à encapsuler dans les milieux salins et n’était pas inerte sur les bicouches lipidiques ce qui limite son utilisation pour la formulation de liposomes ciblant la mitochondrie. / Hsp90 (Heat shock protein 90) is an ubiquitous and well-conserved chaperone protein involved in the folding and the repair of « client » proteins. Among these proteins, several are involved in oncogenic phenomena making hsp90 an interesting target for cancer therapy. Hsp90 consists of three domains ; a N-terminal domain as the ATP hydrolysis site ; a middle domain where the client proteins binds and a C-terminal domain involved in the dimerization, a necessary step to refold the client protein. Several inhibitors were synthesized to target these different domains. N-terminal inhibitors such as Geldanamycin ; were shown to be very efficient but side effects and resistance to the treatment limited their clinical use. Indeed, N-terminal inhibition induces a stress response characterized by an increase of hsp90 and its co-chaperones which is often associated with resistance to the treatment and poor prognosis. Novobiocin, a coumarin antibiotic, is capable of inhibiting the C-terminal domain of hsp90, without inducing a stress response. Several derivatives of this molecule have been synthesized, including 6BrCaQ. The latter was effective in terms of apoptosis induction and cell cycle blockade on several cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231) and induced pro-tumoral client protein degradation but its low solubility limits its in vivo administration. In this thesis, a liposomal formulation of 6BrCaQ has been developed and studied on in prostate cancer cell lines and acute myelogenous leukemia in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic model of breast cancer (MDA-MB-231 luc-GFP). Liposomal 6BrCaQ showed ability to induce apoptosis, to block the cell cycle on several cell lines (PC-3 and MDA-MB-231) and slow down migration of PC-3 cells (wound healing assay). Liposomal 6BrCaQ is able to synergize with doxorubicine or daunorubicine in PC-3 cells and in MOLM-13 cells, respectively. Moreover, protein and RNA expression profiles show that in PC-3 cells liposomal 6BrCaQ downregulates Hsp90 protein and in MDA-MB-231 cells slightly upregulates Hsp70 gene expression. Results obtained during in vivo experiments on the breast orthotopic model revealed a slow downslowdown of tumor growth after 13 days for a dose of 1 mg/kg injected weekly. Histological analysis revealed necrosis in treated groups and aassociated with a decreased cell proliferation (ki67 staining).Hsp90 also has isoforms and analogues localized in intracellular organelles, including, TRAP-1, localized in the mitochondrion and probably implicated in malignant progression through its role in the regulation of the mitochondrial metabolism. Dequalinium (DQ) demonstrated ability to target the mitochondrion. In a second part of the work, liposomes encapsulating DQ have been formulated in order to target 6BrCaQ to mitochondria. However, faced with the difficulty of encapsulating the DQ in liposomes, a physical chemistry study on the interaction DQ / liposomes was established to understand how DQ acts on phospholipid bilayers. Though a mitochondrial targeting capacity, this study revealed DQ was difficult to encapsulate in liposomes in saline medium and not completely inert on lipid bilayers limiting its use to target liposomes to mitochondria.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US and worldwide, accounting for 16% of deaths worldwide in 2015. Of more than 100 types of cancers affecting humans, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and is the second leading cause of death in women. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast carcinomas defined by the lack of the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2 /neu). The prognosis and survival of TNBC patients remains the poor due to the lack of effective targeted therapy. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, such as liposomes, are widely investigated to enhance anticancer efficacy by concentrating the drug molecules in the tissues of interest and by altering the pharmacokinetic profile. Taking advantage of the pH gradient in the tumor microenvironment, pH-triggered release is a promising strategy to enhance the anticancer efficacy of drug delivery systems against TNBC. Previously, a strategy in our lab has been developed to render saturated and pegylated liposomes pH-sensitive: protonation-induced conformational switch of lipid tails, using trans-2-aminocyclohexanol lipids (TACH, flipids) as a molecular trigger. Based on previous work in our lab, pH-sensitive liposomes (fliposomes) composed of C-16 flipids with amine group of morpholine (MOR) and azetidine (AZE) demonstrated optimized triggered release in response to the tumor’s low pH microenvironment. In this study, different preparation methods were developed and optimized to produce viable fliposomes with high doxorubicin (DOX) encapsulation efficiency. In vitro release assays were established and validated to accurately reflect pH-triggered release of fliposomes. The physicochemical properties of DOX-loaded fliposomes were characterized and their pH-dependent release were investigated. Factors influencing the desirable attributes of liposomes, such as size, pH-sensitivity, stability and drug-loading capacity were explored. Based on these characterizations, central composite design (CCD) was utilized to optimize the formulation of fliposome with two critical factors, flipids and cholesterol. Cell viability assays on traditional monolayer and innovative three-dimensional multicellular spheroids (3D MCS) of TNBC cell lines were conducted to evaluate the anticancer efficacy of the resultant fliposomes in vitro. The constructed 3D MCS carried heterogeneously distributed live and apoptotic cells, as well as acidity inside the 3D MCS based on confocal microscopic imaging studies. The distribution and penetration of DOX-loaded fliposomes into 3D MCS was imaged by confocal microscopy in comparison to DOX-loaded non pH-sensitive liposomes and free DOX. As a result, fliposome manifested superior anticancer activity against TNBC 3D MCS by efficient penetration into 3D MCS, followed by tuning up the release rate of the anticancer agent DOX. A TNBC orthotopic xenograft model was established by transplanting TNBC into the murine mammalian fat pad, which maintains the organ-specific tumor microenvironment of the original organ . A pilot pharmacokinetic study was conducted in order to correlate the pH response and stability properties with the in vivo stability of the optimized AZE-C16 fliposome. The antitumor efficacy was comparable between free DOX and DOX-loaded stealth liposome with tumor volumes of ~ 80-90% of the control treatment 32 days post first dose. In contrast, the DOX-loaded fliposome, especially MOR-C16 fliposome, exhibited a significantly higher antitumor efficacy and delayed progression compared to free DOX and stealth liposome treatments. Taken together, DOX-loaded fliposomes were successfully prepared and optimized for in vivo application. They were able to achieve superior activity against TNBC in vitro and in vivo, facilitated by enhanced release of the anticancer drug DOX after penetration inside TNBC tumor.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most devastating primary brain tumour characterised by infiltrative growth and resistance to therapies. According to recent research, the sigma-1 receptor (sig1R), an endoplasmic reticulum chaperone protein, is involved in signaling pathways assumed to control the proliferation of cancer cells and thus could serve as candidate for molecular characterisation of GBM. To test this hypothesis, we used the clinically applied sig1R-ligand (S)-(−)-[18F]fluspidine in imaging studies in an orthotopic mouse model of GBM (U87-MG) as well as in human GBM tissue. A tumour-specific overexpression of sig1R in the U87-MG model was revealed in vitro by autoradiography. The binding parameters demonstrated target-selective binding according to identical KD values in the tumour area and the contralateral side, but a higher density of sig1R in the tumour. Different kinetic profiles were observed in both areas, with a slower washout in the tumour tissue compared to the contralateral side. The translational relevance of sig1R imaging in oncology is reflected by the autoradiographic detection of tumour-specific expression of sig1R in samples obtained from patients with glioblastoma. Thus, the herein presented data support further research on sig1R in neuro-oncology.

Background Novel theranostic options for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are urgently needed. This requires a thorough evaluation of experimental approaches in animal models best possibly reflecting human disease before entering clinical studies. Although several bladder cancer xenograft models were used in the literature, the establishment of an orthotopic bladder cancer model in mice remains challenging. Methods Luciferase-transduced UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells were instilled transurethrally via 24G permanent venous catheters into athymic NMRI and BALB/c nude mice as well as into SCID-beige mice. Besides the mouse strain, the pretreatment of the bladder wall (trypsin or poly-L-lysine), tumor cell count (0.5 × 106–5.0 × 106) and tumor cell dwell time in the murine bladder (30 min – 2 h) were varied. Tumors were morphologically and functionally visualized using bioluminescence imaging (BLI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Results Immunodeficiency of the mouse strains was the most important factor influencing cancer cell engraftment, whereas modifying cell count and instillation time allowed fine-tuning of the BLI signal start and duration – both representing the possible treatment period for the evaluation of new therapeutics. Best orthotopic tumor growth was achieved by transurethral instillation of 1.0 × 106 UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells into SCID-beige mice for 2 h after bladder pretreatment with poly-L-lysine. A pilot PET experiment using 68Ga-cetuximab as transurethrally administered radiotracer revealed functional expression of epidermal growth factor receptor as representative molecular characteristic of engrafted cancer cells in the bladder. Conclusions With the optimized protocol in SCID-beige mice an applicable and reliable model of high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer for the development of novel theranostic approaches was established.

Background Novel theranostic options for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are urgently needed. This requires a thorough evaluation of experimental approaches in animal models best possibly reflecting human disease before entering clinical studies. Although several bladder cancer xenograft models were used in the literature, the establishment of an orthotopic bladder cancer model in mice remains challenging. Methods Luciferase-transduced UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells were instilled transurethrally via 24G permanent venous catheters into athymic NMRI and BALB/c nude mice as well as into SCID-beige mice. Besides the mouse strain, the pretreatment of the bladder wall (trypsin or poly-L-lysine), tumor cell count (0.5 × 106–5.0 × 106) and tumor cell dwell time in the murine bladder (30 min – 2 h) were varied. Tumors were morphologically and functionally visualized using bioluminescence imaging (BLI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Results Immunodeficiency of the mouse strains was the most important factor influencing cancer cell engraftment, whereas modifying cell count and instillation time allowed fine-tuning of the BLI signal start and duration – both representing the possible treatment period for the evaluation of new therapeutics. Best orthotopic tumor growth was achieved by transurethral instillation of 1.0 × 106 UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells into SCID-beige mice for 2 h after bladder pretreatment with poly-L-lysine. A pilot PET experiment using 68Ga-cetuximab as transurethrally administered radiotracer revealed functional expression of epidermal growth factor receptor as representative molecular characteristic of engrafted cancer cells in the bladder. Conclusions With the optimized protocol in SCID-beige mice an applicable and reliable model of high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer for the development of novel theranostic approaches was established.

Quatorze femmes canadiennes meurent chaque jour du cancer du sein. Le cancer du sein triple-négatif (CSTN) détient un mauvais pronostic De nombreux efforts sont fournis afin d'offrir à ces patientes des traitements ciblés, comme les inhibiteurs de poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) afin d’améliorer leur survie et de minimiser la toxicité liée à la chimiothérapie. Le sous-groupe de CSTN qui pourrait bénéficier des PARPi reste à être identifié. De plus, différentes stratégies d'administration des PARPi et de la chimiothérapie pourraient améliorer leur efficacité thérapeutique tout en diminuant la toxicité. Nous avons précédemment dérivé une signature génétique de 63 gènes prédisant la réponse aux PARPi avec une précision globale élevée. Nos objectifs sont 1) d'évaluer les implications cliniques de la signature génétique; et 2) de déterminer la séquence optimale d'administration du talazoparib et du carboplatin in vivo en cancer du sein triple-négatif BRCAWT. D'abord, nous avons évalué la fréquence mutationnelle des 63 gènes dans différents contextes cliniques. Deux bases de données publiques furent utilisées. Puis, nous avons comparé trois cohortes de xénogreffes orthotopiques: A) talazoparib en premier, combiné au carboplatin le jour 3; carboplatin en premier suivi du talazoparib B) un jour après; et C) sept jours après. La fréquence mutationnelle des 63 gènes était élevée chez les tumeurs luminales B et celles de mauvais pronostic. Les patientes luminales B mutées avaient une moindre survie que les patientes non mutées. Aussi, l'inhibition tumorale et métastatique était similaire pour les cohortes A et B, cependant la cohorte B avait moins de toxicité. Les PARPi pourraient avoir un rôle chez les tumeurs luminales B et celles de mauvais pronostic. Deuxièmement, le prétraitement avec le carboplatin semble améliorer la sensibilité au talazoparib et diminuer la toxicité. / Fourteen Canadian women die every day from breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a poor prognosis. Numerous efforts are made to offer these patients targeted therapies such as poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) to improve survival and minimize chemotherapy-related toxicity. It is not well understood which subset of TNBC patients will benefit from PARPi; and if different sequencing strategies of PARPi and chemotherapy can improve therapeutic efficacy and decrease toxicity. We previously derived a 63-gene signature predicting response to PARPi with a high overall accuracy. Our objectives are 1) to evaluate the clinical implications of the 63-gene signature; and 2) to determine the optimal sequence of administration of talazoparib and carboplatin in vivo in BRCAWT TNBC. First, we evaluated the mutational frequency of the 63 genes in different clinical settings using two publically-available datatsets. Second, we compared three cohorts of orthotopic xenografts: A) talazoparib first, combined with carboplatin on day 3; carboplatin first, followed by talazoparib B) one day later; and C) seven days later. We found that the mutational frequency was high in breast cancer subtypes of poor prognosis. Mutated luminal B patients had a lower survival than non-mutated patients. We also found that tumoral and metastatic inhibition were similar between cohorts A and B, but cohort B had less toxicity. In conclusion, there is potential for PARPi efficacy in luminal B and poor prognosis tumors. Second, pretreatment with carboplatin may be an effective approach with less toxicity.