Author: Laura Sesma Sanz
Publisher:
Published: 2021
Total Pages: 251
ISBN-13:
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Cancer is a very heterogeneous disease with a multitude of different facets. However, even different types of cancer share a set of characteristics that can be exploited for therapeutic purposes. In our group we are interested in DNA damage and repair, particularly in the context of cancer, since genomic instability is considered one of the “Hallmarks of Cancer”. Homologous Recombination (HR) is a mechanism used by cells to repair Double-Strand Breaks, the most harmful type of DNA damage. Deficiencies in this pathway of DNA repair results in increased genomic instability and has been observed in a wide variety of tumours, notably in ovarian and breast cancer. The events most commonly associated with HR defects are genetic alterations in HR related genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and the more recently identified PALB2. The concept of synthetic lethality describes the incompatibility or lethality of two simultaneous events that are individually tolerable. Cancer research is taking advantage of this idea to develop new targeted treatments. The most important success of synthetic lethality-based therapy development is the case of PARP inhibitors. It was observed that inhibition of PARP-1, an abundant protein involved in many cellular processes, including DNA repair, is synthetically lethal with defects in Homologous Recombination. Therefore, PARP inhibitors were developed to specifically target HR-deficient tumours while sparing normal HR-proficient tissues. Nevertheless, as with most drugs, many patients develop resistance to PARP inhibitors, which can lead to disease recurrence, thus highlighting the need for alternative treatment options. Recent research has focused not only on finding new synthetic lethal interactions but also on developing new combinations of molecules to potentiate their effect and both prevent and counteract resistances to drugs. Following this idea, the main objective of my doctoral work was to find new potential treatments for HR-deficient tumours, alone or in combination with PARP inhibitors. Within this project, we also developed a new in cellulo screen system, based on analyzing the effects of the studied compounds on cell populations with different HR capacities. We stably transfected HR-proficient and deficient cell lines to express either red or green fluorescent proteins, respectively, and co-cultured them with more than 1000 drugs of a library of compounds. We identified CB1954, previously studied as a prodrug, to specifically target HR-deficient cells. Interestingly, CB1954 synergizes with PARP inhibitors in both HR-deficient and proficient cells, thus constituting a promising combination with interesting potential. Additionally, we identified synergy between PARP inhibition (Talazoparib) and type I PRMT inhibition (MS023) in MTAP-negative NSCLC and ovarian cancer cells, both PARPi sensitive and resistant. Both combinations need further examination to better characterize their mechanisms of action and identify the biomarkers for sensitivity and resistance to the treatments. We are currently studying the effects of CB1954+PARPi on cell fate and, since we have confirmed the effects of the drugs and the synergy in 3D cultured cells, we are testing the combination in ovarian cancer xenograft mouse models. In summary, we have developed a new fluorescence-based method to screen for compounds having a synthetic lethal effect, which could be adapted to the study of other pathologies. We have also identified and tested two new compound combinations that could potentially be applied to the treatment of tumours resistant to PARP inhibitors.
