A dual phenotype of MDA MB 468 cancer cells reveals mutual regulation of tensin3 and adhesion plasticity

A change regarding the extent of adhesion - hereafter referred to as adhesion plasticity - between adhesive and less-adhesive states of mammalian cells is important for their behavior. To investigate adhesion plasticity, we have selected a stable isogenic subpopulation of human MDA-MB-468 breast carcinoma cells growing in suspension. These suspension cells are unable to re-adhere to various matrices or to contract three-dimensional collagen lattices. By using transcriptome analysis, we identified the focal adhesion protein tensin3 (Tns3) as a determinant of adhesion plasticity. Tns3 is strongly reduced at mRNA and protein levels in suspension cells. Furthermore, by transiently challenging breast cancer cells to grow under non-adherent conditions markedly reduces Tns3 protein expression, which is regained upon re-adhesion. Stable knockdown of Tns3 in parental MDA-MB-468 cells results in defective adhesion, spreading and migration. Tns3-knockdown cells display impaired structure and dynamics of focal adhesion complexes as determined by immunostaining. Restoration of Tns3 protein expression in suspension cells partially rescues adhesion and focal contact composition. Our work identifies Tns3 as a crucial focal adhesion component regulated by, and functionally contributing to, the switch between adhesive and non-adhesive states in MDA-MB-468 cancer cells

Medical physics challenges in clinical MR-guided radiotherapy

The integration of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for guidance in external beam radiotherapy has faced significant research and development efforts in recent years. The current availability of linear accelerators with an embedded MRI unit, providing volumetric imaging at excellent soft tissue contrast, is expected to provide novel possibilities in the implementation of image-guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART) protocols. This study reviews open medical physics issues in MR-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) implementation, with a focus on current approaches and on the potential for innovation in IGART.Daily imaging in MRgRT provides the ability to visualize the static anatomy, to capture internal tumor motion and to extract quantitative image features for treatment verification and monitoring. Those capabilities enable the use of treatment adaptation, with potential benefits in terms of personalized medicine. The use of online MRI requires dedicated efforts to perform accurate dose measurements and calculations, due to the presence of magnetic fields. Likewise, MRgRT requires dedicated quality assurance (QA) protocols for safe clinical implementation.Reaction to anatomical changes in MRgRT, as visualized on daily images, demands for treatment adaptation concepts, with stringent requirements in terms of fast and accurate validation before the treatment fraction can be delivered. This entails specific challenges in terms of treatment workflow optimization, QA, and verification of the expected delivered dose while the patient is in treatment position. Those challenges require specialized medical physics developments towards the aim of fully exploiting MRI capabilities. Conversely, the use of MRgRT allows for higher confidence in tumor targeting and organs-at-risk (OAR) sparing.The systematic use of MRgRT brings the possibility of leveraging IGART methods for the optimization of tumor targeting and quantitative treatment verification. Although several challenges exist, the intrinsic benefits of MRgRT will provide a deeper understanding of dose delivery effects on an individual basis, with the potential for further treatment personalization

Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels - an Evolving Research Field within AMPEA, a Joint Programme of the European Energy Research Alliance

On the path to an energy transition away from fossil fuels to sustainable sources, the European Union is for the moment keeping pace with the objectives of the Strategic Energy Technology-Plan. For this trend to continue after 2020, scientific breakthroughs must be achieved. One main objective is to produce solar fuels from solar energy and water in direct processes to accomplish the efficient storage of solar energy in a chemical form. This is a grand scientific challenge. One important approach to achieve this goal is Artificial Photosynthesis. The European Energy Research Alliance has launched the Joint Programme "Advanced Materials & Processes for Energy Applications” (AMPEA) to foster the role of basic science in Future Emerging Technologies. European researchers in artificial photosynthesis recently met at an AMPEA organized workshop to define common research strategies and milestones for the future. Through this work artificial photosynthesis became the first energy research sub-field to be organised into what is designated "an Application” within AMPEA. The ambition is to drive and accelerate solar fuels research into a powerful European field - in a shorter time and with a broader scope than possible for individual or national initiatives. Within AMPEA the Application Artificial Photosynthesis is inclusive and intended to bring together all European scientists in relevant fields. The goal is to set up a thorough and systematic programme of directed research, which by 2020 will have advanced to a point where commercially viable artificial photosynthetic devices will be under development in partnership with industr

Simultaneous inhibition of pan-phosphatidylinositol-3-kinases and MEK as a potential therapeutic strategy in peripheral T-cell lymphomas

Obtained from Haematologica/the Hematology Journal website http://www.haematologica.orgPeripheral T-cell lymphomas are very aggressive hematologic malignancies for which there is no targeted therapy. New, rational approaches are necessary to improve the very poor outcome in these patients. Phosphatidylinositol- 3-kinase is one of the most important pathways in cell survival and proliferation. We hypothesized that phosphatidylinositol- 3-kinase inhibitors could be rationally selected drugs for treating peripheral T-cell lymphomas. Several phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase isoforms were inhibited genetically (using small interfering RNA) and pharmacologically (with CAL-101 and GDC-0941 compounds) in a panel of six peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma cell lines. Cell viability was measured by intracellular ATP content; apoptosis and cell cycle changes were checked by flow cytometry. Pharmacodynamic biomarkers were assessed by western blot. The PIK3CD gene, which encodes the δ isoform of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, was overexpressed in cell lines and primary samples, and correlated with survival pathways. However, neither genetic nor specific pharmacological inhibition of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase δ affected cell survival. In contrast, the pan-phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase inhibitor GDC-0941 arrested all T-cell lymphoma cell lines in the G1 phase and induced apoptosis in a subset of them. We identified phospho-GSK3b and phospho-p70S6K as potential biomarkers of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase inhibitors. Interestingly, an increase in ERK phosphorylation was observed in some GDC-0941-treated T-cell lymphoma cell lines, suggesting the presence of a combination of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and MEK inhibitors. A highly synergistic effect was found between the two inhibitors, with the combination enhancing cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 in all T-cell lymphoma cell lines, and reducing cell viability in primary tumor T cells ex vivo. These results suggest that the combined treatment of pan-phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase + MEK inhibitors could be more effective than single phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase inhibitor treatment, and therefore, that this combination could be of therapeutic value for treating peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas.This work was supported by grants from the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI051623, PI052800 and PI080856), RTICC (RD06/0020/0107) and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (SAF2008-0387-1). EMS is supported by a grant from the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government (BFI08.207). MSB is supported by a Contract Miguel Servet from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (CP11/00018

Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018.

Over the past decade, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has formulated guidelines for the definition and interpretation of cell death from morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Since the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple cell death pathways are unveiled, we propose an updated classification of cell death subroutines focusing on mechanistic and essential (as opposed to correlative and dispensable) aspects of the process. As we provide molecularly oriented definitions of terms including intrinsic apoptosis, extrinsic apoptosis, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT)-driven necrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, parthanatos, entotic cell death, NETotic cell death, lysosome-dependent cell death, autophagy-dependent cell death, immunogenic cell death, cellular senescence, and mitotic catastrophe, we discuss the utility of neologisms that refer to highly specialized instances of these processes. The mission of the NCCD is to provide a widely accepted nomenclature on cell death in support of the continued development of the field

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe

Measurement of the Splitting Function in &ITpp &ITand Pb-Pb Collisions at root&ITsNN&IT=5.02 TeV

Data from heavy ion collisions suggest that the evolution of a parton shower is modified by interactions with the color charges in the dense partonic medium created in these collisions, but it is not known where in the shower evolution the modifications occur. The momentum ratio of the two leading partons, resolved as subjets, provides information about the parton shower evolution. This substructure observable, known as the splitting function, reflects the process of a parton splitting into two other partons and has been measured for jets with transverse momentum between 140 and 500 GeV, in pp and PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. In central PbPb collisions, the splitting function indicates a more unbalanced momentum ratio, compared to peripheral PbPb and pp collisions.. The measurements are compared to various predictions from event generators and analytical calculations.Peer reviewe

Search for Physics beyond the Standard Model in Events with Overlapping Photons and Jets

Results are reported from a search for new particles that decay into a photon and two gluons, in events with jets. Novel jet substructure techniques are developed that allow photons to be identified in an environment densely populated with hadrons. The analyzed proton-proton collision data were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in 2016 at root s = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The spectra of total transverse hadronic energy of candidate events are examined for deviations from the standard model predictions. No statistically significant excess is observed over the expected background. The first cross section limits on new physics processes resulting in such events are set. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the rate of gluino pair production, utilizing a simplified stealth supersymmetry model. The excluded gluino masses extend up to 1.7 TeV, for a neutralino mass of 200 GeV and exceed previous mass constraints set by analyses targeting events with isolated photons.Peer reviewe