Noisy-threshold control of cell death

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cellular responses to death-promoting stimuli typically proceed through a differentiated multistage process, involving a lag phase, extensive death, and potential adaptation. Deregulation of this chain of events is at the root of many diseases. Improper adaptation is particularly important because it allows cell sub-populations to survive even in the continuous presence of death conditions, which results, among others, in the eventual failure of many targeted anticancer therapies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, I show that these typical responses arise naturally from the interplay of intracellular variability with a threshold-based control mechanism that detects cellular changes in addition to just the cellular state itself. Implementation of this mechanism in a quantitative model for T-cell apoptosis, a prototypical example of programmed cell death, captures with exceptional accuracy experimental observations for different expression levels of the oncogene Bcl-x_Land directly links adaptation with noise in an ATP threshold below which cells die.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicate that oncogenes like Bcl-x_L, besides regulating absolute death values, can have a novel role as active controllers of cell-cell variability and the extent of adaptation.</p

The Hubbard model within the equations of motion approach

The Hubbard model has a special role in Condensed Matter Theory as it is considered as the simplest Hamiltonian model one can write in order to describe anomalous physical properties of some class of real materials. Unfortunately, this model is not exactly solved except for some limits and therefore one should resort to analytical methods, like the Equations of Motion Approach, or to numerical techniques in order to attain a description of its relevant features in the whole range of physical parameters (interaction, filling and temperature). In this manuscript, the Composite Operator Method, which exploits the above mentioned analytical technique, is presented and systematically applied in order to get information about the behavior of all relevant properties of the model (local, thermodynamic, single- and two- particle ones) in comparison with many other analytical techniques, the above cited known limits and numerical simulations. Within this approach, the Hubbard model is shown to be also capable to describe some anomalous behaviors of the cuprate superconductors.Comment: 232 pages, more than 300 figures, more than 500 reference

Cofactor Strap regulates oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial p53 activity through ATP synthase

Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer cells. Strap (stress-responsive activator of p300) is a novel TPR motif OB-fold protein that contributes to p53 transcriptional activation. We show here that, in addition to its established transcriptional role, Strap is localised at mitochondria where one of its key interaction partners is ATP synthase. Significantly, the interaction between Strap and ATP synthase downregulates mitochondrial ATP production. Under glucose-limiting conditions, cancer cells are sensitised by mitochondrial Strap to apoptosis, which is rescued by supplementing cells with an extracellular source of ATP. Furthermore, Strap augments the apoptotic effects of mitochondrial p53. These findings define Strap as a dual regulator of cellular reprogramming: first as a nuclear transcription cofactor and second in the direct regulation of mitochondrial respiration

Early changes in the metabolic profile of activated CD8(+) T cells.

Antigenic stimulation of the T cell receptor (TCR) initiates a change from a resting state into an activated one, which ultimately results in proliferation and the acquisition of effector functions. To accomplish this task, T cells require dramatic changes in metabolism. Therefore, we investigated changes of metabolic intermediates indicating for crucial metabolic pathways reflecting the status of T cells. Moreover we analyzed possible regulatory molecules required for the initiation of the metabolic changes