N-acetylcysteine serves as substrate of 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase and stimulates sulfide metabolism in colon cancer cells

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an endogenously produced signaling molecule. The enzymes 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MST), partly localized in mitochondria, and the inner mitochondrial membrane-associated sulfide:quinone oxidoreductase (SQR), besides being respectively involved in the synthesis and catabolism of H2S, generate sulfane sulfur species such as persulfides and polysulfides, currently recognized as mediating some of the H2S biological effects. Reprogramming of H2S metabolism was reported to support cellular proliferation and energy metabolism in cancer cells. As oxidative stress is a cancer hallmark and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was recently suggested to act as an antioxidant by increasing intracellular levels of sulfane sulfur species, here we evaluated the effect of prolonged exposure to NAC on the H2S metabolism of SW480 colon cancer cells. Cells exposed to NAC for 24 h displayed increased expression and activity of MST and SQR. Furthermore, NAC was shown to: (i) persist at detectable levels inside the cells exposed to the drug for up to 24 h and (ii) sustain H2S synthesis by human MST more effectively than cysteine, as shown working on the isolated recombinant enzyme. We conclude that prolonged exposure of colon cancer cells to NAC stimulates H2S metabolism and that NAC can serve as a substrate for human MST

Equilibrium to off-equilibrium crossover in homogeneous active matter

We study the crossover between equilibrium and off-equilibrium dynamical universality classes in the Vicsek model near its ordering transition. Starting from the incompressible hydrodynamic theory of Chen et al \cite{chen2015critical}, we show that increasing the activity leads to a renormalization group (RG) crossover between the equilibrium ferromagnetic fixed point, with dynamical critical exponent $z = 2$, and the off-equilibrium active fixed point, with $z = 1.7$ (in $d=3$). We run simulations of the classic Vicsek model in the near-ordering regime and find that critical slowing down indeed changes with activity, displaying two exponents that are in remarkable agreement with the RG prediction. The equilibrium-to-off-equilibrium crossover is ruled by a characteristic length scale beyond which active dynamics takes over. Such length scale is smaller the larger the activity, suggesting the existence of a general trade-off between activity and system's size in determining the dynamical universality class of active matter.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Equilibrium to off-equilibrium crossover in homogeneous active matter

We study the crossover between equilibrium and off-equilibrium dynamical universality classes in the Vicsek model near its ordering transition. Starting from the incompressible hydrodynamic theory of Chen et al. [Critical phenomenon of the order-disorder transition in incompressible active fluids, New J. Phys. 17, 042002 (2015)NJOPFM1367-263010.1088/1367-2630/17/4/042002], we show that increasing the activity leads to a renormalization group (RG) crossover between the equilibrium ferromagnetic fixed point, with dynamical critical exponent z=2, and the off-equilibrium active fixed point, with z=1.7 (in d=3). We run simulations of the classic Vicsek model in the near-ordering regime and find that critical slowing down indeed changes with activity, displaying two exponents that are in remarkable agreement with the RG prediction. The equilibrium to off-equilibrium crossover is ruled by a characteristic length scale, beyond which active dynamics takes over. The larger the activity is, the smaller is such a length scale, suggesting the existence of a general trade-off between activity and the system's size in determining the dynamical universality class of active matter.Fil: Cavagna, Andrea. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Di Carlo, Luca. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Giardina, Irene. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare; ItaliaFil: Grigera, Tomas Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; Argentina. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Pisegna, Giulia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Itali

Reinforcing and broadening resistance against Fusarium diseases in durum wheat by an udp-glucosyltransferase transgene and its pyramiding with a pectin methyl esterase inhibitor transgene

Many species of the genus Fusarium are phytopathogenic fungi of a wide range of cereal crop plants, including wheat. F. graminearum is the main causal agent of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), while F. culmorum and F. pseudograminearum are the main responsible species of Fusarium Crown Rot (FCR). Fusarium diseases represent major agricultural problems worldwide, causing reduction of grain yield, grain quality and food safety. The latter is associated with contamination of grains with mycotoxins, particularly deoxynivalenol (DON), which cause health problems in humans and animals. DON is a protein synthesis inhibitor, acting as a virulence factor during pathogenesis and resulting essential for fungal spread along the spike. Conversion of DON to deoxynivalenol-3-\u3b2-D-glucoside (D3G) by the activity of specific UDP-glucosyltransferases (UGTs), is one of the mechanisms involved in enhancing plant tolerance to DON. Previous studies demonstrated that the expression of the barley HvUGT13248 gene confers resistance to DON in Arabidopsis thaliana (Shin et al. 2012, J Exp Bot. 63:4731-40) and type II resistance to FHB (i.e. resistance to fungal spread within host tissues) in bread wheat (Li et al. 2015, MPMI 28:1237-46). Improvement of FHB resistance is a major target in both bread and durum wheat. The latter, however, is especially vulnerable, as effective sources of resistance are particularly limited. Therefore, we decided to verify whether the expression of the HvUGT13248 gene could enhance FHB resistance in durum wheat as well. To this aim, transgenic lines of Triticum durum cv. Svevo, constitutively expressing the HvUGT13248 gene, were produced. Transgenic plants in which presence of transcript and protein was confirmed, were infected with F. graminearum and evaluated for FHB severity, DON content and D3G conversion as compared to wild type plants. Our results showed that the HvUGT13248 gene determines in durum wheat a significant reduction of FHB symptoms (up to 30%) compared to control plants. This effect, however, was mainly evident at early infection stages, progressively decreasing at later stages. This outcome differs from what observed in transgenic bread wheat expressing the same UGT gene, in which FHB severity did not exceed 20% up to the last stages of infection (Li et al. 2015). To verify further the effectiveness of the DON-detoxifying approach, durum wheat lines with the same HvUGT13248 transgene were challenged with F. culmorum, also able to produce DON. A significant reduction of FCR symptoms compared to Svevo plants was observed. This represents the first report of improvement of FCR resistance associated with overexpression of an UGT involved in DON-detoxification. Recently, in order to combine in the same plant genes controlling two different mechanisms of type II resistance to FHB, we have crossed two types of durum wheat transgenic lines, one expressing the HvUGT13248 gene, the other AcPMEI, coding for a kiwi pectin methyl esterase inhibitor, known to increase resistance by strengthening the cell wall pectin fraction. On selected carriers of both transgenes, and in control lines with individual or no transgenes, the efficacy of the novel assembly will be verified against FHB and FCR

Dynamical Renormalization Group for Mode-Coupling Field Theories with Solenoidal Constraint

The recent inflow of empirical data about the collective behaviour of strongly correlated biological systems has brought field theory and the renormalization group into the biophysical arena. Experiments on bird flocks and insect swarms show that social forces act on the particles’ velocity through the generator of its rotations, namely the spin, indicating that mode-coupling field theories are necessary to reproduce the correct dynamical behaviour. Unfortunately, a theory for three coupled fields—density, velocity and spin—has a prohibitive degree of intricacy. A simplifying path consists in getting rid of density fluctuations by studying incompressible systems. This requires imposing a solenoidal constraint on the primary field, an unsolved problem even for equilibrium mode-coupling theories. Here, we perform an equilibrium dynamic renormalization group analysis of a mode-coupling field theory subject to a solenoidal constraint; using the classification of Halperin and Hohenberg, we can dub this case as a solenoidal Model G. We demonstrate that the constraint produces a new vertex that mixes static and dynamical coupling constants, and that this vertex is essential to grant the closure of the renormalization group structure and the consistency of dynamics with statics. Interestingly, although the solenoidal constraint leads to a modification of the static universality class, we find that it does not change the dynamical universality class, a result that seems to represent an exception to the general rule that dynamical universality classes are narrower than static ones. Our results constitute a solid stepping stone in the admittedly large chasm towards developing an off-equilibrium mode-coupling theory of biological groups.Fil: Cavagna, Andrea. Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Di Carlo, Luca. Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Giardina, Irene. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Grigera, Tomas Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; Argentina. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Pisegna, Giulia. Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ItaliaFil: Scandolo, Mattia. Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Itali

Renormalization group crossover in the critical dynamics of field theories with mode coupling terms

Motivated by the collective behavior of biological swarms, we study the critical dynamics of field theories with coupling between order parameter and conjugate momentum in the presence of dissipation. Under a fixed-network approximation, we perform a dynamical renormalization group calculation at one loop in the near-critical disordered region, and we show that the violation of momentum conservation generates a crossover between an unstable fixed point, characterized by a dynamic critical exponent z=d/2, and a stable fixed point with z=2. Interestingly, the two fixed points have different upper critical dimensions. The interplay between these two fixed points gives rise to a crossover in the critical dynamics of the system, characterized by a crossover exponent κ=4/d. The crossover is regulated by a conservation length scale R0, given by the ratio between the transport coefficient and the effective friction, which is larger as the dissipation is smaller: Beyond R0, the stable fixed point dominates, while at shorter distances dynamics is ruled by the unstable fixed point and critical exponent, a behavior which is all the more relevant in finite-size systems with weak dissipation. We run numerical simulations in three dimensions and find a crossover between the exponents z=3/2 and z=2 in the critical slowdown of the system, confirming the renormalization group results. From the biophysical point of view, our calculation indicates that in finite-size biological groups mode coupling terms in the equation of motion can significantly change the dynamical critical exponents even in the presence of dissipation, a step toward reconciling theory with experiments in natural swarms. Moreover, our result provides the scale within which fully conservative Bose-Einstein condensation is a good approximation in systems with weak symmetry-breaking terms violating number conservation, as quantum magnets or photon gases.Fil: Cavagna, Andrea. Istituto Sistemi Complessi; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Di Carlo, Luca. Istituto Sistemi Complessi; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; ItaliaFil: Giardina, Irene. Istituto Sistemi Complessi; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; ItaliaFil: Grandinetti, Luca. Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia; ItaliaFil: Grigera, Tomas Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mendoza. Museo de Ciencias Naturales y Antropológicas J. Cornelio Moyano; ArgentinaFil: Pisegna, Giulia. Istituto Sistemi Complessi; Italia. Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza"; Itali

Dynamical Renormalization Group Approach to the Collective Behavior of Swarms

We study the critical behavior of a model with nondissipative couplings aimed at describing the collective behavior of natural swarms, using the dynamical renormalization group under a fixed-network approximation. At one loop, we find a crossover between an unstable fixed point, characterized by a dynamical critical exponent z=d/2, and a stable fixed point with z=2, a result we confirm through numerical simulations. The crossover is regulated by a length scale given by the ratio between the transport coefficient and the effective friction, so that in finite-size biological systems with low dissipation, dynamics is ruled by the unstable fixed point. In three dimensions this mechanism gives z=3/2, a value significantly closer to the experimental window, 1.0≤z≤1.3, than the value z≈2 numerically found in fully dissipative models, either at or off equilibrium. This result indicates that nondissipative dynamical couplings are necessary to develop a theory of natural swarms fully consistent with experiments.Fil: Cavagna, Andrea. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università Degli Studi Di Roma "la Sapienza". Dipartimento Di Sanita Publica E Malattie Infetive; ItaliaFil: Di Carlo, Luca. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università Degli Studi Di Roma "la Sapienza". Dipartimento Di Sanita Publica E Malattie Infetive; ItaliaFil: Giardina, Irene. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università Degli Studi Di Roma "la Sapienza". Dipartimento Di Sanita Publica E Malattie Infetive; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare; ItaliaFil: Grandinetti, Luca. Politecnico di Torino; ItaliaFil: Grigera, Tomas Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; ArgentinaFil: Pisegna, Giulia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia. Università Degli Studi Di Roma "la Sapienza". Dipartimento Di Sanita Publica E Malattie Infetive; Itali

When Intimate Partner Violence Meets Same Sex Couples: A Review of Same Sex Intimate Partner Violence

Over the past few decades, the causes of and intervention for intimate partner violence (IPV) have been approached and studied. This paper presents a narrative review on IPV occurring in same sex couples, that is, same sex IPV (SSIPV). Despite the myth that IPV is exclusively an issue in heterosexual relationships, many studies have revealed the existence of IPV among lesbian and gay couples, and its incidence is comparable to (Turell, 2000) or higher than that among heterosexual couples (Messinger, 2011; Kelley et al., 2012). While similarities between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) IPV were found, unique features and dynamics were present in LGB IPV. Such features are mainly related to identification and treatment of SSIPV in the community and to the need of taking into consideration the role of sexual minority stressors. Our findings show there is a lack of studies that address LGB individuals involved in IPV; this is mostly due to the silence that has historically existed around violence in the LGB community, a silence built on fears and myths that have obstructed a public discussion on the phenomenon. We identified the main themes discussed in the published studies that we have reviewed here. The reviews lead us to the conclusion that it is essential to create a place where this subject can be freely discussed and approached, both by LGB and heterosexual people

Renormalization group crossover in the critical dynamics of field theories with mode coupling terms

Motivated by the collective behavior of biological swarms, we study the critical dynamics of field theories with coupling between order parameter and conjugate momentum in the presence of dissipation. Under a fixed-network approximation, we perform a dynamical renormalization group calculation at one loop in the near-critical disordered region, and we show that the violation of momentum conservation generates a crossover between an unstable fixed point, characterized by a dynamic critical exponent z = d/2, and a stable fixed point with z = 2. Interestingly, the two fixed points have different upper critical dimensions. The interplay between these two fixed points gives rise to a crossover in the critical dynamics of the system, characterized by a crossover exponent κ = 4/d. The crossover is regulated by a conservation length scale R0, given by the ratio between the transport coefficient and the effective friction, which is larger as the dissipation is smaller: Beyond R0, the stable fixed point dominates, while at shorter distances dynamics is ruled by the unstable fixed point and critical exponent, a behavior which is all the more relevant in finite-size systems with weak dissipation. We run numerical simulations in three dimensions and find a crossover between the exponents z = 3/2 and z = 2 in the critical slowdown of the system, confirming the renormalization group results. From the biophysical point of view, our calculation indicates that in finite-size biological groups mode coupling terms in the equation of motion can significantly change the dynamical critical exponents even in the presence of dissipation, a step toward reconciling theory with experiments in natural swarms. Moreover, our result provides the scale within which fully conservative Bose-Einstein condensation is a good approximation in systems with weak symmetry-breaking terms violating number conservation, as quantum magnets or photon gases.Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológico

Evaluation of the effect of a floxed Neo cassette within the dystroglycan (<i>Dag1</i>) gene

OBJECTIVE: Dystroglycan (DG) is an adhesion complex formed by two subunits, \u3b1-DG and \u3b2-DG. In skeletal muscle, DG is part of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex that is crucial for sarcolemma stability and it is involved in a plethora of muscular dystrophy phenotypes. Due to the important role played by DG in skeletal muscle stability as well as in a wide variety of other tissues including brain and the peripheral nervous system, it is essential to investigate its genetic assembly and transcriptional regulation. RESULTS: Herein, we analyze the effect of the insertion of a floxed neomycin (Neo) cassette within the 3' portion of the universally conserved IG1-intron of the DG gene (Dag1). We analyzed the transcription level of Dag1 and the expression of the DG protein in skeletal muscle of targeted mice compared to wild-type and we did not find any alterations that might be attributed to the gene targeting. However, we found an increase of the cross-sectional areas of tibialis anterior that might have some physiological significance that needs to be assessed in the future. Moreover, in targeted mice the skeletal muscle morphology and its regeneration capacity after injury did not show any evident alterations. We confirmed that the targeting of Dag1 with a floxed Neo-cassette did not produce any gross undesired effects