François Moisan, researcher in Team 05 – Translational research in cutaneous oncology and rare skin diseases (TRIO2) will present his HDR (Habilitation to Supervise Research) on Wednesday June 5 at 2pm, BBS amphitheater.

Subject: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of the antitumor response to propranolol in vascular tumors.

François Moisan works on cutaneous vascular tumors and their therapy. The serendipity discovery of the effectiveness of propranolol on infantile hemangiomas (IH) in the team in 2008 led him, upon his return from the USA in 2013, to work on this mechanism of action. This work revealed that (1) IH is a tumor rich in norepinephrine (NE), one of the natural ligands of the beta-adrenergic pathway, the expected target of treatment. (2) The cells making up the tumor (endothelial cells and pericytes) are capable of producing and secreting NE. (3) Anti-angiogenic effect is obtained through a competitive inhibition of NE by propranolol in vitro. He was also able to demonstrate (4) a third cell type which is key in the pathogenesis and response to propranolol: the telocyte. This stromal cell involved in cellular communication, architecture and tissue remodeling, including in the skin, is revealed here (5) to overexpress aquaporin-1 modulated by propranolol. The development of in vitro coculture models relevant to this study makes it possible to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the growth and regression of hemangiomas, with the aim of identifying new therapeutic pathways for tumors and vascular abnormalities. The group he formed within the oncodermatology team (TRIO2) is also interested in angiomas associated with GNAQ mutations and angiosarcoma-type cancers.