2,265 research outputs found
Fenretinide induces autophagic cell death in caspase-defective breast cancer cells
The elimination of tumor cells by apoptosis is the main mechanism of action of chemotherapeutic drugs. More recently, autophagic cell death has been shown to trigger a nonapoptotic cell death program in cancer cells displaying functional defects of caspases. Fenretinide (FenR), a synthetic derivative of retinoic acid, promotes growth inhibition and induces apoptosis in a wide range of tumor cell types. The present study was designed to evaluate the ability of fenretinide to induce caspase-independent cell death and to this aim we used the human mammary carcinoma cell line MCF-7, lacking functional caspase-3 activity. We demonstrated that in these cells fenretinide is able to trigger an autophagic cell death pathway. In particular we found that fenretinide treatment resulted in the increase in Beclin 1 expression, the conversion of the soluble form of LC3 to the autophagic vesicle-associated form LC3-II and its shift from diffuse to punctate staining and finally the increase in lysosomes/autophagosomes. By contrast, caspase-3 reconstituted MCF-7 cell line showed apoptotic cell death features in response to fenretinide treatment. These data strongly suggest that fenretinide does not invariably elicit an apoptotic response but it is able to induce autophagy when apoptotic pathway is deregulated. The understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in fenretinide action is important for the future design of therapies employing this retinoid in breast cancer treatment
SuperB: a linear high-luminosity B Factory
This paper is based on the outcome of the activity that has taken place
during the recent workshop on "SuperB in Italy" held in Frascati on November
11-12, 2005. The workshop was opened by a theoretical introduction of Marco
Ciuchini and was structured in two working groups. One focused on the machine
and the other on the detector and experimental issues.
The present status on CP is mainly based on the results achieved by BaBar and
Belle. Estabilishment of the indirect CP violation in B sector in 2001 and of
the direct CP violation in 2004 thanks to the success of PEP-II and KEKB e+e-
asymmetric B Factories operating at the center of mass energy corresponding to
the mass of the Y(4s). With the two B Factories taking data, the Unitarity
Triangle is now beginning to be overconstrained by improving the measurements
of the sides and now also of the angles alpha, and gamma. We are also in
presence of the very intriguing results about the measurements of sin(2 beta)
in the time dependent analysis of decay channels via penguin loops, where b -->
s sbar s and b --> s dbar d. Tau physics, in particular LFV search, as well as
charm and ISR physics are important parts of the scientific program of a SuperB
Factory. The physics case together with possible scenarios for the high
luminosity SuperB Factory based on the concepts of the Linear Collider and the
related experimental issues are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 22 figures, INFN Roadmap Repor
CELL DEATH AND AUTOPHAGY: CYTOKINES, DRUGS, AND NUTRITIONAL FACTORS
Cellsmay use multiple pathways to commit suicide. In certain contexts, dying cells generate large amounts
of autophagic vacuoles and clear large proportions of their cytoplasm, before they finally die, as exemplified
by the treatment of human mammary carcinoma cells with the anti-estrogen tamoxifen (TAM,
≤1 M). Protein analysis during autophagic cell death revealed distinct proteins of the nuclear fraction
including GST- and some proteasomal subunit constituents to be affected during autophagic cell death.
Depending on the functional status of caspase-3, MCF-7 cells may switch between autophagic and apoptotic
features of cell death [Fazi, B., Bursch,W., Fimia, G.M., Nardacci R., Piacentini, M., Di Sano, F., Piredda,
L., 2008. Fenretinide induces autophagic cell death in caspase-defective breast cancer cells. Autophagy
4(4), 435–441]. Furthermore, the self-destruction of MCF-7 cells was found to be completed by phagocytosis
of cell residues [Petrovski, G., Zahuczky, G., Katona, K., Vereb, G., Martinet,W., Nemes, Z., Bursch,W.,
Fésüs, L., 2007. Clearance of dying autophagic cells of different origin by professional and non-professional
phagocytes. Cell Death Diff. 14 (6), 1117–1128].
Autophagy also constitutes a cell’s strategy of defense upon cell damage by eliminating damaged bulk
proteins/organelles. This biological condition may be exemplified by the treatment of MCF-7 cells with
a necrogenic TAM-dose (10 M), resulting in the lysis of almost all cells within 24 h. However, a transient
(1 h) challenge of MCF-7 cells with the same dose allowed the recovery of cells involving autophagy.
Enrichment of chaperones in the insoluble cytoplasmic protein fraction indicated the formation of aggresomes,
a potential trigger for autophagy. In a further experimental model HL60 cells were treated with
TAM, causing dose-dependent distinct responses: 1–5 MTAM, autophagy predominant; 7–9 M, apoptosis
predominant; 15 M, necrosis. These phenomena might be attributed to the degree of cell damage
caused by tamoxifen, either by generating ROS, increasing membrane fluidity or forming DNA-adducts.
Finally, autophagy constitutes a cell’s major adaptive (survival) strategy in response to metabolic challenges
such as glucose or amino acid deprivation, or starvation in general. Notably, the role of autophagy
appears not to be restricted to nutrient recycling in order to maintain energy supply of cells and to adapt
cell(organ) size to given physiological needs. For instance, using a newly established hepatoma cell line
HCC-1.2, amino acid and glucose deprivation revealed a pro-apoptotic activity, additive to TGF- 1. The proapoptotic
action of glucose deprivation was antagonized by 2-deoxyglucose, possibly by stabilizing the
mitochondrial membrane involving the action of hexokinase II. These observations suggest that signaling
cascades steering autophagy appear to provide links to those regulating cell number.
Taken together, our data exemplify that a given cell may flexibly respond to type and degree of
(micro)environmental changes or cell death stimuli; a cell’s response may shift gradually from the elimination
of damaged proteins by autophagy and the recovery to autophagic or apoptotic pathways of cell
death, the failure of which eventually may result in necrosis
MEG Upgrade Proposal
We propose the continuation of the MEG experiment to search for the charged
lepton flavour violating decay (cLFV) \mu \to e \gamma, based on an upgrade of
the experiment, which aims for a sensitivity enhancement of one order of
magnitude compared to the final MEG result, down to the
level. The key features of this new MEG upgrade are an increased rate
capability of all detectors to enable running at the intensity frontier and
improved energy, angular and timing resolutions, for both the positron and
photon arms of the detector. On the positron-side a new low-mass, single
volume, high granularity tracker is envisaged, in combination with a new highly
segmented, fast timing counter array, to track positron from a thinner stopping
target. The photon-arm, with the largest liquid xenon (LXe) detector in the
world, totalling 900 l, will also be improved by increasing the granularity at
the incident face, by replacing the current photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with a
larger number of smaller photosensors and optimizing the photosensor layout
also on the lateral faces. A new DAQ scheme involving the implementation of a
new combined readout board capable of integrating the diverse functions of
digitization, trigger capability and splitter functionality into one condensed
unit, is also under development. We describe here the status of the MEG
experiment, the scientific merits of the upgrade and the experimental methods
we plan to use.Comment: A. M. Baldini and T. Mori Spokespersons. Research proposal submitted
to the Paul Scherrer Institute Research Committee for Particle Physics at the
Ring Cyclotron. 131 Page
Measurement of the radiative decay of polarized muons in the MEG experiment
We studied the radiative muon decay by
using for the first time an almost fully polarized muon source. We identified a
large sample (~13000) of these decays in a total sample of 1.8x10^14 positive
muon decays collected in the MEG experiment in the years 2009--2010 and
measured the branching ratio B() =
(6.03+-0.14(stat.)+-0.53(sys.))x10^-8 for E_e > 45 MeV and E_{\gamma} > 40 MeV,
consistent with the Standard Model prediction. The precise measurement of this
decay mode provides a basic tool for the timing calibration, a normalization
channel, and a strong quality check of the complete MEG experiment in the
search for process.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Added an introduction to NLO calculation which
was recently calculated. Published versio
New constraint on the existence of the mu+-> e+ gamma decay
The analysis of a combined data set, totaling 3.6 \times 10^14 stopped muons
on target, in the search for the lepton flavour violating decay mu^+ -> e^+
gamma is presented. The data collected by the MEG experiment at the Paul
Scherrer Institut show no excess of events compared to background expectations
and yield a new upper limit on the branching ratio of this decay of 5.7 \times
10^-13 (90% confidence level). This represents a four times more stringent
limit than the previous world best limit set by MEG.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, a version accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
The MEG detector for decay search
The MEG (Mu to Electron Gamma) experiment has been running at the Paul
Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland since 2008 to search for the decay \meg\
by using one of the most intense continuous beams in the world. This
paper presents the MEG components: the positron spectrometer, including a thin
target, a superconducting magnet, a set of drift chambers for measuring the
muon decay vertex and the positron momentum, a timing counter for measuring the
positron time, and a liquid xenon detector for measuring the photon energy,
position and time. The trigger system, the read-out electronics and the data
acquisition system are also presented in detail. The paper is completed with a
description of the equipment and techniques developed for the calibration in
time and energy and the simulation of the whole apparatus.Comment: 59 pages, 90 figure
Measurement of ISR-FSR interference in the processes e+ e- --> mu+ mu- gamma and e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma
Charge asymmetry in processes e+ e- --> mu+ mu- gamma and e+ e- --> pi+ pi-
gamma is measured using 232 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector at
center-of-mass energies near 10.58 GeV. An observable is introduced and shown
to be very robust against detector asymmetries while keeping a large
sensitivity to the physical charge asymmetry that results from the interference
between initial and final state radiation. The asymmetry is determined as
afunction of the invariant mass of the final-state tracks from production
threshold to a few GeV/c2. It is compared to the expectation from QED for e+ e-
--> mu+ mu- gamma and from theoretical models for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma. A
clear interference pattern is observed in e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma, particularly
in the vicinity of the f_2(1270) resonance. The inferred rate of lowest order
FSR production is consistent with the QED expectation for e+ e- --> mu+ mu-
gamma, and is negligibly small for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- gamma.Comment: 32 pages,29 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.
A Study of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries and Flavor Oscillations in Neutral B Decays at the Upsilon(4S)
We present a measurement of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in
neutral B meson decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II
asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data
sample consists of 29.7 recorded at the
resonance and 3.9 off-resonance. One of the neutral B mesons,
which are produced in pairs at the , is fully reconstructed in
the CP decay modes , , , () and , or in flavor-eigenstate
modes involving and (). The flavor of the other neutral B meson is tagged at the time of
its decay, mainly with the charge of identified leptons and kaons. The proper
time elapsed between the decays is determined by measuring the distance between
the decay vertices. A maximum-likelihood fit to this flavor eigenstate sample
finds . The value of the asymmetry amplitude is determined from
a simultaneous maximum-likelihood fit to the time-difference distribution of
the flavor-eigenstate sample and about 642 tagged decays in the
CP-eigenstate modes. We find , demonstrating that CP violation exists in the neutral B meson
system. (abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 35 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Response to electrons and pions of the calorimeter for the CHORUS experiment
We built and tested on charged particle beams the high energy-resolution calorimeter for the CHORUS experiment, which searches for nu(mu)-nu(tau) oscillations in the CERN Wide Band Neutrino Beam. This calorimeter is longitudinally divided into three sectors: one electromagnetic and two hadronic. The first two upstream sectors are made of lead and plastic scintillating fibers in the volume ratio of 4/1, and they represent the first large scale application of this technique for combined electromagnetic and hadronic calorimetry. The third sector is made of a sandwich of lead plates and scintillator strips and complements the measurement of the hadronic energy flow. In this paper, we briefly describe the calorimeter design and we show results on its response to electrons and pions, obtained from tests performed at the CERN SPS and PS. An energy resolution of sigma(E)/E=(32.3+/-2.4)%/root E(GeV)+(1.4+/-0.7)% was achieved for pions, and sigma(E)/E=(13.8+/-0.9)%/root V(GeV)+(-0.2+/-0.4)% for electrons
- …