Never let it go: Stopping key mechanisms underlying metastasis to fight pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an extremely aggressive neoplasm, predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths before 2030. This dismal trend is mainly due to lack of effective treatments against its metastatic behavior. Therefore, a better understanding of the key mechanisms underlying metastasis should provide new opportunities for therapeutic purposes. Genomic analyses revealed that aberrations that fuel PDAC tumorigenesis and progression, such as SMAD4 loss, are also implicated in metastasis. Recently, microRNAs have been shown to play a regulatory role in the metastatic behavior of many tumors, including PDAC. In particular, miR-10 and miR-21 have appeared as master regulators of the metastatic program, while members of the miR-200 family are involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal switch, favoring cell migration and invasiveness. Several studies have also found a close relationship between cancer stem cells (CSCs) and biological features of metastasis, and the CSC markers ALDH1, ABCG2 and c-Met are expressed at high levels in metastatic PDAC cells. Emerging evidence reveals that exosomes are involved in the modulation of the tumor microenvironment and can initiate PDAC pre-metastatic niche formation in the liver and lungs. In this review, we provide an overview of the role of all these pivotal factors in the metastatic behavior of PDAC, and discuss their potential exploitation in the clinic to improve current therapeutics and identify new drug targets

Phantom Cosmology with Non-minimally Coupled Real Scalar Field

We find that the expansion of the universe is accelerating by analyzing the recent observation data of type \textsc{I}a supernova(SN-Ia) .It indicates that the equation of state of the dark energy might be smaller than -1,which leads to the introduction of phantom models featured by its negative kinetic energy to account for the regime of equation of state parameter $w<-1$.In this paper the possibility of using a non-minimally coupled real scalar field as phantom to realize the equation of state parameter $w<-1$ is discussed.The main equations which govern the evolution of the universe are obtained.Then we rewrite them with the observable quantities.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Gen.Rel.Gra

Phantom Field with O(N) Symmetry in Exponential Potential

In this paper, we study the phase space of phantom model with O(\emph{N}) symmetry in exponential potential. Different from the model without O(\emph{N}) symmetry, the introduction of the symmetry leads to a lower bound $w>-3$ on the equation of state for the existence of stable phantom dominated attractor phase. The reconstruction relation between the potential of O(\textit{N}) phantom system and red shift has been derived.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, replaced with the version to appear on Phys. Rev.

Protecting the primordial baryon asymmetry in the seesaw model compatible with WMAP and KamLAND

We require that the primordial baryon asymmetry is not washed out in the seesaw model compatible with the recent results of WMAP and the neutrino oscillation experiments including the first results of KamLAND. We find that only the case of the normal neutrino mass hierarchy with an approximate $L_{e}$-symmetry satisfies the requirement. We further derive, depending on the signs of neutrino mass eigenvalues, three types of neutrino mass matrixes, where the values of each element are rather precisely fixed.Comment: 21pages; added reference

Coupled oscillators as models of phantom and scalar field cosmologies

We study a toy model for phantom cosmology recently introduced in the literature and consisting of two oscillators, one of which carries negative kinetic energy. The results are compared with the exact phase space picture obtained for similar dynamical systems describing, respectively, a massive canonical scalar field conformally coupled to the spacetime curvature, and a conformally coupled massive phantom. Finally, the dynamical system describing exactly a minimally coupled phantom is studied and compared with the toy model.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Physical Review

Testing the Nature of Kaluza-Klein Excitations at Future Lepton Colliders

With one extra dimension, current high precision electroweak data constrain the masses of the first Kaluza-Klein excitations of the Standard Model gauge fields to lie above $\simeq 4$ TeV. States with masses not much larger than this should be observable at the LHC. However, even for first excitation masses close to this lower bound, the second set of excitations will be too heavy to be produced thus eliminating the possibility of realizing the cleanest signature for KK scenarios. Previous studies of heavy $Z'$ and $W'$ production in this mass range at the LHC have demonstrated that very little information can be obtained about their couplings to the conventional fermions given the limited available statistics and imply that the LHC cannot distinguish an ordinary $Z'$ from the degenerate pair of the first KK excitations of the $\gamma$ and $Z$. In this paper we discuss the capability of lepton colliders with center of mass energies significantly below the excitation mass to resolve this ambiguity. In addition, we examine how direct measurements obtained on and near the top of the first excitation peak at lepton colliders can confirm these results. For more than one extra dimension we demonstrate that it is likely that the first KK excitation is too massive to be produced at the LHC.Comment: 38 pages, 10 Figs, LaTex, comments adde

Can the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w be less than -1?

Models of dark energy are conveniently characterized by the equation-of-state parameter w=p/\rho, where \rho is the energy density and p is the pressure. Imposing the Dominant Energy Condition, which guarantees stability of the theory, implies that w \geq -1. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that a well-defined model could (perhaps temporarily) have w<-1, and indeed such models have been proposed. We study the stability of dynamical models exhibiting w<-1 by virtue of a negative kinetic term. Although naively unstable, we explore the possibility that these models might be phenomenologically viable if thought of as effective field theories valid only up to a certain momentum cutoff. Under our most optimistic assumptions, we argue that the instability timescale can be greater than the age of the universe, but only if the cutoff is at or below 100 MeV. We conclude that it is difficult, although not necessarily impossible, to construct viable models of dark energy with w<-1; observers should keep an open mind, but the burden is on theorists to demonstrate that any proposed new models are not ruled out by rapid vacuum decay.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, minor corrections, reference adde

The State of the Dark Energy Equation of State

By combining data from seven cosmic microwave background experiments (including the latest WMAP results) with large scale structure data, the Hubble parameter measurement from the Hubble Space Telescope and luminosity measurements of Type Ia supernovae we demonstrate the bounds on the dark energy equation of state $w_Q$ to be $-1.38< w_Q <-0.82$ at the 95% confidence level. Although our limit on $w_Q$ is improved with respect to previous analyses, cosmological data does not rule out the possibility that the equation of state parameter $w_Q$ of the dark energy $Q$ is less than -1. We present a tracking model that ensures $w_Q \le -1$ at recent times and discuss the observational consequences.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, added a referenc

Higgs and neutrino sector, EDM and epsilon_K in a spontaneously CP and R-parity breaking supersymmetric model

We construct an extension of the supersymmetric standard model where both CP symmetry and R-parity are spontaneously broken. We study the electroweak symmetry breaking sector of the model and find minima consistent with the experimental bounds on Higgs boson masses. Neutrino masses and mixing angles are generated through both seesaw and bilinear R-parity violation. We show that the hierarchical mass pattern is obtained, and mixings are consistent with measured values. Due to the spontaneous CP and R-parity violation, the neutrino sector is CP violating, and we calculate the corresponding phase. We further restrict the parameter space to agree with the limits on the electric dipole moment of the neutron. Finally, we study the CP violation parameter epsilon_K in the kaon system and show that we obtain results consistent with the experimental value.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to EPJ