Linda Silina (2020)

Targeting TYRO3 : A novel strategy to radiosensitise bladder cancer cells

Abstract

Bladder cancer (BCa) is a major global health problem. It is the fourth most common cancer in men in industrialized countries. 25% of all diagnosed BCa are Muscle-invasive bladder cancers (MIBC) which have poor prognosis. Cystectomy is the standard treatment for MIBC, but for patients with comorbidities it presents significant drawbacks including increased risk of infection and impacted quality of life. Radiotherapy coupled with chemotherapy and tumor transurethral resection has emerged as a promising bladder sparing. Chemotherapy does not spare normal tissue and results in side effects. Therefore, it is of great interest to discover novel radiosensitisation strategies for bladder tumors.TYRO3 is a receptor tyrosine kinase of the TAM family (comprising TYRO3, AXL and MERTK) and is known to regulate diverse biological. TYRO3 is overexpressed in many types of cancer and promotes tumor cell proliferation, survival and resistance to chemotherapy. In addition, higher levels of TYRO3 expression have been associated with decreased overall survival in patients of diverse cancers. However, the role of TYRO3 in BCa has so far not been studied. In this thesis, I investigated:(1)The role of TYRO3 in BCa; (2) The radiosensitising effect of TYRO3 downregulation and inhibition in BCa cells; (3) The effect of TYRO3 downregulation and inhibition on normal human urothelial tissue.We first demonstrated that TYRO3 is overexpressed in 50% of MIBCs. TYRO3 overexpression conferred a TYRO3-dependance to bladder tumor cells for cell growth and viability. Transcriptomic analysis of TYRO3-downregulated cells suggested that TYRO3 signaling controlled cell cycle and protected from apoptosis, which indicated a potential to improve radiation response. TYRO3 downregulation lead to a significantly increased radiosensitivity of BCa cells and conversely, TYRO3-overexpression induced radioresistance. In combination with radiotherapy, TYRO3 dowregulation lead to a cell cycle arrest and a long term persistence of Ionizing Radiation-Induced Foci (IRIF). Finally, I demonstrated that TYRO3 downregulation and inhibition did not impact viability of normal human bladder cells suggesting that inhibiting TYRO3 could improve radiotherapy efficiency while sparing normal surrounding tissues. (Defended on Octobre 15, 2020)