En pathologie tumorale, l’étude du micro-environnement tumoral doit prendre en compte différents modes de communication cellulaire : contacts directs entre membranes plasmiques, émission et réception de cytokines et enfin émission et internalisation d’objets biologiques plus complexes comme les microvésicules et les exosomes qui peuvent être assimilés à de véritables organites extra-cellulaires. Le virus d’Epstein-Barr (EBV) participe à l’oncogenèse de plusieurs affections malignes humaines d’origine épithéliale (carcinomes nasopharyngés ou NPC) ou lymphocytaire (lymphomes post-transplantation). Dans ces tumeurs, les cellules malignes qui sont infectées de façon latente par EBV libèrent des exosomes et des microvésicules qui contiennent des protéines et des acides nucléiques d’origine virale. L’étude de ces éléments doit permettre de mieux comprendre les interactions hôte-tumeur et de mettre en évidence de nouveaux biomarqueurs utiles pour le diagnostic précoce et la surveillance de la maladie sous traitement. Le premier objectif de ma thèse consistait à étudier la sécrétion par les cellules malignes d’une famille de microARN viraux appelés miR-BART et leur diffusion dans le sang périphérique chez les sujets porteurs de tumeurs associées à EBV. Pour la première fois j’ai mis en évidence une sécrétion d’exosomes porteurs de miR-BART par les cellules de NPC en culture in vitro. J’ai également montré que les miR-BART, particulièrement miR-BART7, sont détectables dans le plasma de sujets porteurs de NPC. Contrairement à ce qui se passe in vitro les miR-BART plasmatiques ne sont pas transportés par des exosomes. Des données obtenues chez la souris montrent qu’ils peuvent être transportés par des complexes extra-cellulaires que l’on peut précipiter au moyen d’anticorps anti-ago2. Nous cherchons à confirmer ces données sur des échantillons de plasma provenant de patients porteurs de NPC. Ces données pourront guider à l’avenir l’utilisation des miR-BART circulants comme source de biomarqueurs.Le deuxième volet de ma thèse avait pour but d’étudier les modifications du protéome des exosomes induites par une oncoprotéine du virus d’Epstein-Barr appelée LMP1 (latent membrane protein 1). J’ai montré que la LMP1, lorsqu’elle est exprimée dans les cellules lymphocytaires ou épithéliales, infectées ou non par EBV, induit la libération de la protéine PARP1 dans le milieu extra-cellulaire. Cette PARP1 extra-cellulaire n’est pas associée aux exosomes ni aux microvésicules mais à des nano-objets non-vésiculaires contenant notamment des histones et de l’ADN. Nous avons désignés ces objets sous le terme de complexes ADN-protéines extra-cellulaires. Nous ne savons presque rien de la biogenèse de ces complexes ; nous pensons qu’ils ne proviennent pas uniquement de cellules en apoptose. En revanche, des expériences préliminaires suggèrent que la présence de PARP1 dans ces complexes coïncide avec une activation permanente de la PARP1 induite dans les cellules productrices par l’expression de l’oncoprotéine LMP1. Cette hypothèse est en cours de vérification grâce à des expériences menées sur des lignées cellulaires exprimant différentes formes sauvages ou mutées de la LMP1. Ces données sur l’activation de la PARP1 et sur sa sécrétion induite par la LMP1 auront des retombées intéressantes pour notre compréhension des mécanismes d’oncogenèse et d’auto-immunité liés à l’infection par le virus d’Epstein-Barr. / The study of tumoral microenvironment should take into account different modes of intercellular communications: direct contacts between extracellular membranes, secretion and uptake of cytokines and finally emission and uptake of complex biological objects like exosomes and microvesicles.Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with several human malignancies of epithelial origin (Nasopharyngeal carcinoma or NPC) or of lymphoïd origin (post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder or PTLD). In these tumors, malignant cells are latently infected by EBV and release exosomes and microvesicles containing viral nucleic acids and proteins. Studying them will enable a better understanding of tumor-host interactions and the discovery of new markers which could be useful for early diagnostic and the follow-up of the disease under treatment.The first aim of this thesis was to study the release by malignant cells of EBV microRNAs belonging to the BART family and their blood diffusion in patients bearing NPC tumors. For the first time, I’ve shown that exosomes released by NPC cells in vitro contain EBV miR-BART microRNAs. Moreover, ebv-miR-BART7 can be detected in the plasma of NPC patients. Unlike what is observed in vitro, circulating BART microRNAs are not carried by exosomes. Recent data from studies in xenografted mice show that they are carried by extra-cellular complexes which can be immunoprecipitated by anti-Ago2 antibodies. We are currently trying to confirm these data in plasma from NPC patients. This work will ease the use of miR-BARTs as potential biomarkers.The second aim was to study the proteome modifications induced by the EBV Latent Membrane Protein 1 protein (LMP1). I’ve shown that LMP1 expression in lymphoid or epithelial cells infected or not by EBV induces the release of PARP1 in the extra-cellular space. This extra-cellular PARP1 is not carried by exosomes or microvesicles but is embedded in non-vesicular nano-objects containing histones and DNA. We have called these objects “DNA-proteins complexes”. We don’t know how they are produced and released by cells. We think that they are not only secreted by apoptotic cells. Recent data show that this release of extra-cellular PARP1 is associated with PARP1 activation by LMP1 oncoprotein expression. We are trying to prove this hypothesis using cell lines expressing wild type or mutated LMP1. The release and the activation of PARP1 induced by LMP1 expression will help to understand the mechanisms of EBV-associated oncogenesis and auto-immunity.

Excision Repair Cross-Complementation group 1 (ERCC1) est une enzyme de réparation de l’ADN fréquemment déficiente dans le cancer bronchique non-à-petites cellules. Bien qu’une expression faible d’ERCC1 soit prédictive de réponse aux sels de platine, l’efficacité des chimiothérapies à base de platine est limitée par leur toxicité et l’apparition de résistance, justifiant la nécessité de stratégies thérapeutiques alternatives. Par ailleurs, l’absence de test compagnon diagnostic permettant d’évaluer la fonctionnalité d’ERCC1 dans la pratique clinique empêche actuellement toute thérapie personnalisée basée sur le statut ERCC1.Afin d’identifier de nouvelles stratégies thérapeutiques pour les tumeurs ERCC1-déficientes en exploitant le concept de létalité synthétique, des screens à haut-débit , utilisant des composés pharmaceutiques ou par ARN interférence, ont été réalisés dans un modèle isogénique de CBNPC déficient en ERCC1. Cette approche a permis d’identifier plusieurs inhibiteurs de poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 et 2 (PARP1/2), tels l’opalarib (AZD2281), le niraparib (MK-24827) et BMN 673 comme sélectifs pour les cellules ERCC1-déficientes. Les mécanismes sous-tendant cette sensibilité sélective ont été étudiés, et les résultats suivants ont été mis en évidence : (i) les cellules ERCC1-déficientes présentent un blocage prolongé en phase G2/M après exposition à l’olaparib ; (ii) l’isoforme 202 d’ERCC1, dont le rôle a été récemment mis en évidence dans la résistance aux sels de platine, module également la sensibilité aux inhibiteurs de PARP ; (iii) la déficience en ERCC1 est épistatique avec les défauts de recombinaison homologue (RH), malgré une capacité normale des cellules ERCC1-déficientes à former des foyers RAD51 ; ceci suggère qu’ERCC1 pourrait intervenir dans la réparation d’une lésion de l’ADN induite par l’inhibiteur de PARP1/2 en amont de l’invasion du brin d’ADN lors de la RH ; (iv) l’inhibition de l’expression de PARP1 par ARN interférence permet de restaurer la résistance aux inhibiteurs de PARP1/2, dans les cellules ERCC1-déficientes uniquement. Ces résultats suggèrent que les inhibiteurs de PARP1/2 pourraient représenter une nouvelle stratégie thérapeutique chez les patients dont la tumeur est déficiente en ERCC1 et un essai clinique va être mis en place pour évaluer cette hypothèse.Afin d’explorer la présence de biomarqueurs de la fonctionnalité d’ERCC1, quatre approches ont été entreprises en parallèle dans le modèle isogénique de CBNPC déficient en ERCC1: (i) irradiation aux UV, afin d’évaluer la voie NER (Nucleotide Excision Repair); (ii) séquençage d’exome, dans le but de rechercher une signature génomique (ADN) ; (iii) analyse du transcriptome cellulaire, pour identifier des modifications d’expression d’ARN ; et (iv) SILAC (Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino acids in Cell culture) afin de comparer le protéome des cellules ERCC1-déficientes et ERCC1-proficientes. Ces approches ont permis d’identifier une potentielle signature génomique, ainsi que de biomarqueurs d’activité – guanine deaminase (GDA) et nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT). De plus amples validations et investigations mécanistiques de ces observations préliminaires sont actuellement requises. / Excision Repair Cross-Complementation group 1 (ERCC1) is a DNA repair enzyme that is frequently deficient in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although low ERCC1 expression correlates with platinum sensitivity, the clinical effectiveness of platinum therapy is limited - mainly by toxicities and occurrence of resistance - highlighting the need for alternative treatment strategies. In addition, the lack of a reliable assay evaluating ERCC1 functionality in the clinical setting currently precludes personalising therapy based on ERCC1 status. To discover new synthetic lethality-based therapeutic strategies for ERCC1-defective tumours, high-throughput drug and siRNA screens in an isogenic NSCLC model of ERCC1 deficiency were performed. This approach identified multiple clinical poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 and 2 (PARP1/2) inhibitors such as olaparib (AZD-2281), niraparib (MK-4827) and BMN 673 as being selective for ERCC1 deficiency. The mechanism underlying ERCC1-selective effects was dissected by studying molecular biomarkers of tumour cell response, and revealed that: (i) ERCC1-deficient cells displayed a significant delay in double-strand break repair associated with a profound and prolonged G2/M arrest following PARP1/2 inhibitor treatment; (ii) ERCC1 isoform 202, which has recently been shown to mediate platinum sensitivity, also modulated PARP1/2 sensitivity; (iii) ERCC1-deficiency was epistatic with homologous recombination deficiency, although ERCC1-deficient cells did not display a defect in RAD51 foci formation. This suggests that ERCC1 might be required to process PARP1/2 inhibitor induced DNA lesions prior to DNA strand invasion; and (iv) PARP1 silencing restored PARP1/2 inhibitor resistance in ERCC1-deficient cells but had no effect in ERCC1-proficient cells, supporting the hypothesis that PARP1 might be required for the ERCC1 selectivity of PARP1/2 inhibitors. This study indicated that PARP1/2 inhibitors as a monotherapy could represent a novel therapeutic strategy for NSCLC patients with ERCC1-deficient tumours, and a clinical protocol is being written to evaluate this hypothesis.To investigate whether a surrogate biomarker of ERCC1 functionality could be developed, four parallel approaches were undertaken in the ERCC1-isogenic NSCLC model: (i) UV irradiation, to evaluate the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) pathway; (ii) whole exome sequencing, to look for an ERCC1-associated genomic scar at the DNA level; (iii) transcriptomic analysis, to investigate changes at the RNA expression level; and (iv) SILAC (Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino acids in Cell culture) analysis, to compare proteomic profiles between ERCC1-proficient and ERCC1-deficient cells. These approaches allowed the identification of putative genomic signature and potential metabolic surrogate biomarkers - guanine deaminase (GDA) and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT). Further validation and mechanistic investigations of these latter preliminary observations are warranted.

L’ADN est une molécule dont l’intégrité est cruciale pour le bon fonctionnement de tous les organismes vivants. Cependant, il est régulièrement soumis à différents stress provenant de sources endogènes ou exogènes, et qui sont capables de générer dans sa structure des dommages de nature variée. Chaque dommage peut être reconnu par une panoplie de protéines, parmi lesquelles nous pouvons retrouver les protéines de réparation, les inhibiteurs de réparation, les facteurs de transcriptions ou encore les protéines de remodelage chromatinien. Ces protéines constituent l’interactome d’une lésion donnée.Les cyclonucléosides sont des dommages complexes de l’ADN qui ont pour particularité d’impliquer à la fois la base et le résidu de sucre, entre lesquels une liaison covalente supplémentaire est créée. La présence de cette liaison a pour conséquence de déformer la double hélice de l’ADN. Ainsi, ces lésions ne sont pas prises en charge par le système de réparation par excision de bases, comme la plupart des dommages d’oxydation, mais elles seraient plutôt reconnues par le système de réparation par excision de nucléotides, ce dernier prenant en charge les lésions volumineuses.L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier l’interactome des cyclonucléosides en utilisant différents modèles biologiques : eucaryotes, bactéries ou archées. En utilisant une technique de piégeage de protéines sur des sondes comportant ces lésions, nous avons effectué un screening des interactions entre les cyclonucléosides et des protéines issues d’extraits protéiques HeLa. Nous avons ainsi identifié l’influence négative des cyclonucléosides sur la reconnaissance de sa séquence cible par un facteur de transcription DREF, ainsi que sur les interactions de PARP1 avec l’ADN. Ces résultats ont été confirmés par l’usage des techniques complémentaires.Nous avons également analysé les interactions entre la glycosylase bactérienne Fpg et les cyclonucléosides : cette enzyme possède une affinité pour ces lésions, sans pourtant exercer d’activité d’excision. Cette affinité est inférieure à l’affinité de la Fpg pour les sites abasiques mais reste supérieure à son affinité pour l’ADN non-endommagé. Le rôle que pourraient jouer les cyclonucléosides dans l’ADN est alors discuté suite aux résultats obtenus.Enfin, une archée radiorésistante Thermococcus gammatolerans a été étudiée. Dans un premier temps, la formation des lésions d’oxydation simples et complexes à forte dose d’irradiation (2500 et 5000 Gy) a été évaluée. La 8-oxo-désoxyguanosine, exemple des lésions simples d’oxydation, est formée en grande quantité suite à une forte dose d’irradiation, et rapidement réparée dans les cellules remises dans des conditions optimales de culture. Les cyclonucléosides, quant à eux, ne sont pas détectés même à de très fortes doses d’irradiation, ce qui soulève des questions sur la formation de ces dommages. Ensuite, deux nouvelles glycosylases isolées de Thermococcus gammatolerans ont été étudiées : leur mécanisme d’action ainsi que leur spécificité vis-à-vis des substrats ont été élucidés.Les travaux effectués au cours de cette thèse ont contribué à la meilleure compréhension des interactions entre les cyclonucléosides et les protéines interagissant avec eux. Le développement des techniques de piégeage des protéines sur les sondes lésées, qui a constitué une partie importante des travaux, pourra également servir à étudier l’interactome d’autres lésions complexes de l’ADN. / DNA is a molecule, which integrity is crucial for correct functioning of all the living organisms. However, it is regularly submitted to different stresses coming from endogenous or exogenous sources, which are able to generate various damages in its structure. Each damage may be recognized by multiple proteins, among which one can find repair proteins, inhibitors of DNA repair, transcription factors or proteins of chromatin remodelling. All these proteins constitute the interactome of a given DNA lesion.Cyclonucleosides are complex damages of DNA, which imply the base and the sugar residue at the same time, since an additional covalent bond is generated between these two. The consequence of the presence of this bond is the deformation of the double helix. For this reason, cyclonucleosides are not recognized by the base excision repair system, as the majority of the oxidative lesions are, but rather by the nucleotide excision repair system, which takes in charge bulky lesions.The objective of this thesis is to study the interactome of the cyclonucleosides, by using different biological models: eucaryotes, bacteries and archaea. By using the technique that enables trapping of proteins on the probes holding these lesions, we realised a screening of interactions between cyclonucleosides and proteins issued from the HeLa extracts. We identified the negative influence of cyclonucleosides on the recognition of its target sequence by the transcription factor DREF, as well as on the PARP1 interactions with DNA. These results were then confirmed by complementary techniques.We have also analysed the interactions between the bacterial glycosylase Fpg and cyclonucleosides: this enzyme possesses an affinity for these lesions, without however exerting an excision activity. This affinity is lower than the Fpg affinity for abasic sites, but it is higher than its affinity for non-damaged DNA. The role that could play cyclonucleosides in DNA is discussed following these results.Finally, a radioresistant archaea Thermococcus gammatolerans was studied. First, the formation of simple and complex oxidative lesions at the high radiation doses (2500 and 5000 Gy) was evaluated. 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine, which is an example of simple oxidative lesions, is formed in great quantity at high irradiation dose, and is rapidly repaired once the cells are put in their optimal culture conditions. As for cyclonucleosides, they are not detected even at very high doses of radiation, which raises questions concerning the formation of these damages. Next, two new glycosylases isolated from Thermococcus gammatolerans were studied: their mechanism of action, as well as their specificity against the substrates, were elucidated.The work accomplished during this thesis contributed to the better understanding of the interactions between cyclonucleosides and the proteins that interact with them. Also, the development of the protein trapping techniques on the damaged probes, which constituted an important part of this work, can be applied to study the interactome of other complex DNA lesions.

Pendant longtemps, la chromatine a été uniquement décrite comme un moyen de compacter près de deux mètres d’ADN dans un noyau de quelques micromètres de diamètre. On sait aujourd’hui que la chromatine représente en fait un élément majeur de régulation de toutes les fonctions nucléaires impliquant l’ADN. Dans le contexte de dommages de l’ADN induits par irradiations UV, la chromatine endommagée subit une décondensation rapide et transitoire qui l’amène à occuper un volume 1,5 fois plus grand que son volume initial. Cette relaxation chromatinienne est associée à une plus grande accessibilité de l’ADN. Néanmoins, le lien entre ces deux effets découlant de la présence de dommages, n’a pas été établi, ni caractérisé. En couplant l’imagerie de cellules vivantes à l’induction de dommages ciblés au sein de noyaux cellulaires par micro-irradiation laser, ces travaux ont permis de mettre en évidence le rôle majeur de PARP1 dans la réponse chromatinienne aux dommages de l’ADN. En effet, certaines conclusions contradictoires présentes dans la littérature scientifique concernant l’action de PARP1 sur la chromatine ont été réconciliées en démontrant que PARP1 seul peut se lier à la chromatine et entraîner une plus forte compaction de celle-ci, tandis que son activité catalytique de PARylation va, quant à elle, conduire à une décompaction de la structure chromatinienne. Cette étude s’est aussi intéressée à la dynamique particulière de l’histone H1 suite aux dommages de l’ADN. En effet, celui-ci est rapidement exclu des zones de dommages par un mécanisme encore inconnu, et les éléments apportés ici suggèrent que H1 pourrait jouer un rôle dans la décondensation de la chromatine suite aux dommages de l’ADN. Pour finir, des techniques de photo-perturbation et de spectroscopie de corrélation de fluorescence ont été employées pour comprendre et caractériser l’environnement moléculaire que constitue la chromatine endommagée et décondensée. Bien qu’une augmentation significative des interactions entre la chromatine et certains de ses partenaires d’interactions soit observée au sein des zones endommagées, aucun changement en termes d’encombrement moléculaire n’a pu être mis en évidence à ce niveau qui pourrait expliquer une plus grande accessibilité de l’ADN. / For a long time, chromatin was only described as a mean to fit the two-meters long DNA molecule into a nucleus of only a few microns. It is admitted today that chromatin actually represents a key element in the regulation of all nuclear functions dependent on DNA. In the context of UV-induced DNA damage, chromatin undergoes a rapid and transient relaxation which leads to an expansion of the damaged area to 1.5 times its original size. While this chromatin response to damage is associated with a higher DNA accessibility, the link between those two phenomena, as well as the mechanisms driving them, are still poorly understood. Using live-cell imaging and laser micro-irradiation to induce DNA damage on specific nuclear areas, this work allowed to gain hindsight on the predominant role played by PARP1 in the DNA damage-induced chromatin relaxation. Indeed, showing that PARP1 at DNA damage sites can both induce chromatin compaction through its recruitment at DNA breaks or chromatin decondensation through its PARylation activity helped reconcile its apparent opposite effects described in the literature. A focus was also made on the linker histone H1, as it displays a peculiar behavior upon DNA damage, being rapidly released from the site of DNA lesions. Even if the driving force behind H1 release from damaged chromatin areas has not been identified yet, its behavior suggests that H1 might play a part in chromatin relaxation or in increasing DNA accessibility upon DNA damage. Lastly, combining photo-activation techniques and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, experiments were performed in order to understand the physical environment that damaged, relaxed chromatin constitutes. We report here that, while enhanced binding of random DNA binding factors is observed in the damaged chromatin area, no significant change is observed in the macromolecular crowding levels that could potentially explain this enhanced binding, as well as a higher DNA accessibility.

MDD is a severe and debilitating disorder that is associated with a growing global economic burden due to reduced workplace productivity along with increased healthcare resource utilization. Furthermore, depression markedly enhances the risk for suicide, mortality that is especially worrisome given that 30% of depressed individuals have an inadequate response to current antidepressants. This inadequacy of antidepressants necessitates the discovery of a better understanding of the pathobiology of MDD. Most current antidepressants work through monoamine neurotransmitters, and their relative efficacy in depression led to the now dated monoamine-deficiency hypothesis. The limited usefulness of antidepressants has led to a reinvigorated search for other pathologies in depression that might yield clues for the development of better drug treatments. In this regard, a strong association has been found between oxidative stress and MDD. Our lab recently found increased DNA oxidation and elevated poly(ADP)ribose polymerase (PARP1) gene expression in the brain from donors that had MDD at the time of death. Besides DNA damage repair, PARP1 mediates several downstream inflammatory effects that may contribute to pathology in MDD. In fact, our lab has demonstrated that PARP-1 inhibition produces antidepressant-like effects in rodents, suggesting that PARP-1 inhibitors hold promise as a novel antidepressant drug. While our lab had previously demonstrated elevated PARP1 gene expression in the frontal cortex in MDD, whether PARP1 protein levels were also increased in depression had not been verified. My thesis research was performed to determine whether PARP1 protein expression was also elevated in the brain in MDD. I studied primarily the hippocampus because it is part of the limbic (mediating emotion) system of the brain and because previous research has shown numerous other pathologies in the hippocampus. My study was carried out simultaneously as others in our lab were measuring PARP1 protein levels in frontal cortex in MDD. This latter work was important since the lab’s previous work had observed elevated PARP1 gene expression in the frontal cortex, rather than in the hippocampus which was not previously studied. Hippocampal and frontal cortical brain sections were cut from frozen blocks of both MDD and psychiatrically normal control brain donors for these studies. PARP1 protein levels were estimated by assisted-imaging software. The findings herein demonstrate that levels of PARP1 immunoreactivity are significantly elevated in the frontal cortex of MDD donors as compared to control donors. However, there was no change in PARP1 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus in MDD.

Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) ribosylation is a post-translational modification dependent on the transfer of ADPr units from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) on to a plethora of biomolecules (i.e., proteins, DNA, RNA, etc.) in response to physiological stressors (i.e., nutrient deprivation, oxidative stress, DNA strand breaks). Poly-ADP-ribosylation (PARylation) is primarily mediated by the family of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) and enzymatically degraded (dePARylation) by hydrolases such as poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG). This thesis characterizes the role of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) and PARG in the skeletal muscle of healthy mature mice under normal physiological conditions. Specifically, we validate the deletion of Parp1 and Parg in inducible skeletal muscle-specific KO mouse models followed by performing general phenotyping of both male and female mice. The thesis concludes that under normal physiological conditions the activity of Parp1 or Parg in (de)PARylation is dispensable for maintaining skeletal muscle mass, function, and homeostasis in healthy mature mice.

Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is a gammaherpesvirus that infects more than 95% of the human population worldwide. EBV latent infection of B cells is associated with a variety of lymphomas and epithelial cancers and accounts for approximately 1% of all human cancers. The EBV genome persists in infected host cells as a chromatinized episome and is subject to chromatin-mediated regulation. Binding of the host insulator protein CTCF to the EBV genome has an established role in maintaining viral latency type, and in other herpesviruses, loss of CTCF binding at specific regions correlates with viral reactivation. CTCF is post-translationally modified by the host enzyme PARP1, which can affect CTCF’s insulator activity, DNA binding capacity, and ability to form chromatin loops. Both PARP1 and CTCF have been implicated in the regulation of EBV latency and lytic reactivation. Here, we show that PARP activity regulates CTCF in type III EBV latency to maintain latency type-specific gene expression. Further, PARP1 supports chromatin looping between the OriP enhancer and other regions throughout the EBV genome. Further, we show that CTCF is not involved in EBV lytic reactivation, although it is known to restrict reactivation in other herpesviruses. Both PARP activity and PARP1 binding function to restrict EBV lytic reactivation in response to physiological lytic induction. Overall, we show that PARP1 has specific functions throughout the EBV genome, and CTCF function is specifically regulated by PARP activity at specific loci. Taken together, we suggest a model in which PARP1 acts as a stress sensor to determine the fate of the virus in the host cell. These data provide a mechanistic understanding of PARP1 function throughout the EBV genome that suggest potential therapeutic application of PARP inhibitors in EBV-associated treatment strategies. We propose two distinct strategies specific to EBV latency type that could target EBV-infected cancer cells beyond the current chemotherapeutic standard-of-care. / Biomedical Sciences

This thesis focuses on the development of molecules that target proteins in a previously undescribed manner for the treatment of BRCA deficient cancers. ZINC 13403027, a clerodan-based natural product, was shown to target a protein called Rad52. Cancers possessing loss of function mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 are dependent on Rad52 for DNA repair and replication while normal, healthy cells possess multiple DNA repair/replication pathways. Thus, inhibitors of Rad52 may serve as selective anti-cancer drugs for BRCA deficient tumors. ZNIC 13403027 was selected for its high activity in disrupting the ssDNA-Rad52 interaction in a gel-shift assay as well as exhibiting the required inactivity at disrupting the ssDNA-Rad51 interaction. Due to its lack of permeability, a synthetic route amenable to modification has been partially developed. It is thought that a prodrug or bioisostere of ZINC 13403027 could cross the membrane so that the cellular activity of this novel tool molecule may be established. Additionally, an allosteric PARP1 inhibitor, 5F02, was explored. Discussed here is the synthetic route to 5F02 and its analogs. Structure activity relationships were develop in an attempt to increase inhibitory activity and drug-like properties. This thesis reports the success to date on these two projects. / Pharmaceutical Sciences

Pluripotent stem cells are a special population of stem cell with indefinitely self-renewal and unlimited differentiation capability, which makes them an attractive avenue for regenerative medicine and disease modeling. Therefore, it is important to understanding the fundamental mechanisms that govern and maintain their pluripotent state. A phenomenon termed mitotic bookmarking has recently been suggested as a potential mechanism involved in the stable propagation of cellular identity through the cell cycles. Candidate-based studies have identified mitotic bookmarking factors that are retained on the mitotic chromatin and preserve the transcriptional memory of the cell. Nevertheless, there is a poor understanding of which proteins can serve as mitotic bookmarks, as well as the chromatin dynamics of bookmarked sites during mitosis and the start of the G1 phase. We have previously identified a list of putative mitotic bookmarking factors in pluripotent stem cells, from which we tested the role of PARP1, HDGF, and PSIP1 as potential bookmarks for the propagation of the pluripotent state through mitosis. Here we showed that the absence of PARP1 at the M-G1 transition impairs self-renewal capability of pluripotent stem cells without affecting the proliferation and cell cycle progression. Conclusive evidence that establishes a role for HDGF or PSIP1 in mitotic bookmarking of pluripotent stem cells has yet to emerge. However, our work provides a new avenue for exploring the functional importance of mitotic bookmarks in pluripotent maintenance. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Yes / Organometallic complexes offer the prospect of targeting multiple pathways that are important in cancer biology. Here, the preclinical activity and mechanism(s) of action of a silver-bis(N-heterocyclic carbine) complex (Ag8) were evaluated. Ag8 induced DNA damage via several mechanisms including topoisomerase I/II and thioredoxin reductase inhibition and induction of reactive oxygen species. DNA damage induction was consistent with cytotoxicity observed against proliferating cells and Ag8 induced cell death by apoptosis. Ag8 also inhibited DNA repair enzyme PARP1, showed preferential activity against cisplatin resistant A2780 cells and potentiated the activity of temozolomide. Ag8 was substantially less active against non-proliferating non-cancer cells and selectively inhibited glycolysis in cancer cells. Ag8 also induced significant anti-tumour effects against cells implanted intraperitoneally in hollow fibres but lacked activity against hollow fibres implanted subcutaneously. Thus, Ag8 targets multiple pathways of importance in cancer biology, is less active against non-cancer cells and shows activity in vivo in a loco-regional setting. / RMP and MS funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research (pump priming grant BPP 046). IJS and AL funded by NIHR Research & Innovation Division, Strategic Project Funding 2013 and Manchester Pharmacy School Fellowship.