ED BIO SORBONNE PARIS CITE Proposition de sujet de thèse à l’appui d’une demande de contrat doctoral 2017-2018 Renseignements relatifs à l’Unité de Recherche : Label et intitulé : PARCC INSERM U970 Nom et prénom du Directeur : Alain TEDGUI Téléphone : 0153988000 Télécopie : 33153987953 Courriel: [email protected] Renseignements relatifs à l’Equipe : Nom de l’Equipe d’Accueil : Immuothérapie et traitement anti-angiogénique en cancérologie Nom et prénom du responsable : Eric TARTOUR Qualité du responsable : PU-PH Téléphone : 0156093942 Télécopie : 33156092080 Courriel : [email protected] Renseignements relatifs au sujet de thèse : Nom et prénom du Directeur de thèse (HDR) : Corinne TANCHOT Qualité : Chercheur INSERM Téléphone : 0153988010 Télécopie : 33153987953 Courriel : [email protected] Titre du sujet proposé : (En français) : Optimisation des stratégies de vaccination thérapeutique anti-tumorales par association avec d’autres stratégies d’immunothérapies. (En anglais) : Optimization of cancer vaccine therapy by association with other immunotherapies. Département (cocher le département correspondant au sujet de thèse qui n’est pas obligatoirement le vôtre) : Biologie Cellulaire et moléculaire, Physiologie et Physiopathologie Immunologie Développement Génétique Neurobiologie et Vieillissement Infectiologie, Microbiologie Summary (5 lines maximum) : We recently demonstrated the high therapeutic efficacy of a vaccine targeting the specific tumor associated antigen Survivin. The aim of this project is to evaluate if additional therapies may improve its efficiency. We will first characterize the expression of various checkpoint inhibitors in vaccinated mice and the potential anti-angiogenic effect of the survivin vaccine. Following these analyses, we will associate the survivin vaccine with appropriate checkpoint inhibitors and/or anti-angiogenic molecules. Proposition de sujet de thèse à l’appui d’une demande de contrat doctoral 2017-2087 Nom, prénom du directeur de l'unité de recherche : Tedgui, Alain Numéro de l'unité de recherche (et établissement de rattachement) : INSERM U970 Univ Paris Descartes Nom, prénom du responsable de l'équipe d'accueil (EAD) : Tartour, Eric Nom, prénom du directeur de thèse : Tanchot, Corinne Titre du sujet de thèse proposé : Optimization of cancer vaccine therapy by association with other immunotherapies. Citer 5 mots clés : Tumor, immunotherapy, Vaccination, Immunosuppression, Angiogenesis Candidat pressenti : OUI NON Contenu scientifique du programme de la thèse (en anglais) An ideal cancer vaccine must target an antigen, which should be specific and overexpressed on tumor cells. As such, the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) protein survivin is an attractive target for anticancer immunotherapy because it is a near universally over expressed tumor antigen in human cancers, whereas its expression is poor or undetectable in most differentiated adult tissues. We recently developed a survivin-based vaccine strategy composed of long multi-epitopic peptides containing both promiscuous CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes. We demonstrated the high therapeutic efficacy of this new vaccine in various mouse tumor models. However a complete tumor regression was not observed in all animals. In this project we aim to test two additional strategies to improve the efficiency of the survivin vaccine. 1) Combination of survivin vaccine with immune check-point inhibitors Although the survivin vaccine improved the anti-tumoral T cell responses, it may not overcome tumor mediated immunosuppressive mechanisms. We will first study the kinetic of expression of the different co-inhibitory pathways (PD-1, TIM-3, TIGIT, CTLA-4, PDL-1) in tumor bearing mice vaccinated or not with survivin. This will be performed by flow cytometry in conventional (CD4+ FoxP3-) and regulatory (CD4+ FoxP3+) CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells isolated from the spleen, draining lymph-nodes and the tumor. Depending on the results, combinatorial therapy using survivin vaccine and immune checkpoint blockade (PD-1, TIM-3, etc.) will be performed. 2) Combination of survivin vaccine with anti-angiogenic molecules Both HIF-1 and VEGF induce an overexpression of survivin by tumor associated endothelial cells, which thus make them resistant to apoptosis. Such overexpression of survivin promotes angiogenesis and is associated with a resistance to chemotherapeutic and anti-angiogenic therapies. There is therefore a strong rational to associate the survivin vaccine with anti-angiogenic molecules. We will first investigate the direct anti-angiogenic effect of the survivin vaccine by studying blood vessel in tumor bearing mice vaccinated or not with survivin peptides. This will be performed by multiparametric in situ immunofluorescence technique and staining with CD31 and -SMA. We will also evaluate the intensity of survivin expression by endothelial cell isolated from the tumor site by intracellular flow cytometry staining. We will then combine the survivin vaccine with anti-angiogenic molecules to strengthen both therapies. A crucial step will be to determine the timing and the order of association of these two therapies. We aim to address the impact of such treatment on the immune system by deep functional and phenotypic study of conventional CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and Treg cells isolated from the spleen, draining lymph-nodes and from the tumor. We will notably take into account the potential effects of anti-angiogenic molecules on immunosuppression. We will also study the temporal localization of these different T cell populations in the tumor by confocal analysis. As a perspective, we will consider to combine immune check-point inhibitors and anti-angiogenic molecules with survivin vaccine. Indiquez les cinq meilleures publications récentes de l’équipe : Terme, M., and C. Tanchot (2017). Ann Pathol 1, 11-17. Tran, T., et al. (2016). Clin Cancer. Res. 22(16), 4133-4144. Voron, T., et al. (2015). J Exp Med 212, 139-148. Tanchot, C., et al. (2013). Cancer Microenviron 6, 147-157. Meunier, S., et al. (2012). J Leukoc Biol 91, 859-869.