493 research outputs found

    Escaping death: Mitochondrial redox homeostasis in cancer cells

    Get PDF
    Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important signaling molecules that act through the oxidation of nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. Several hallmarks of cancer, including uncontrolled proliferation, angiogenesis, and genomic instability, are promoted by the increased ROS levels commonly found in tumor cells. To counteract excessive ROS accumulation, oxidative stress, and death, cancer cells tightly regulate ROS levels by enhancing scavenging enzymes, which are dependent on the reducing cofactor nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). This review focuses on mitochondrial ROS homeostasis with a description of six pathways of NADPH production in mitochondria and a discussion of the possible strategies of pharmacological intervention to selectively eliminate cancer cells by increasing their ROS levels

    Enforced neutrality and color-flavor unlocking in the three-flavor Polyakov-loop NJL model

    Get PDF
    We study how the charge neutrality affects the phase structure of three-flavor PNJL model. We point out that, within the conventional PNJL model at finite density the color neutrality is missing because the Wilson line serves as an external ``colored'' field coupled to dynamical quarks. In this paper we heuristically assume that the model may still be applicable. To get color neutrality one has then to allow non vanishing color chemical potentials. We study how the quark matter phase diagram in (T,ms2/ÎĽ)(T,m_s^2/\mu)-plane is affected by imposing neutrality and by including the Polyakov loop dynamics. Although these two effects are correlated in a nonlinear way, the impact of the Polyakov loop turns out to be significant in the TT direction, while imposing neutrality brings a remarkable effect in the ms2/ÎĽm_s^2/\mu direction. In particular, we find a novel unlocking transition, when the temperature is increased, even in the chiral SU(3) limit. We clarify how and why this is possible once the dynamics of the colored Polyakov loop is taken into account. Also we succeed in giving an analytic expression for TcT_c for the transition from two-flavor pairing (2SC) to unpaired quark matter in the presence of the Polyakov loop.Comment: 11 pages, REVTex4, 10 eps figures; v2: added two notes, added a reference; version to appear in Phys. Rev.

    Cooling of a Compact Star with a LOFF Matter Core

    Get PDF
    Specific heat and neutrino emissivity due to direct URCA processes for quark matter in the color superconductive Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase of Quantum-Chromodynamics have been evaluated. The cooling rate of simplified models of compact stars with a LOFF matter core is estimated.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the Helmoltz International Summer School of Theoretical Physics on Dense Matter in Heavy Ion Collisions and Astrophysics, JINR, Dubna, Russia, 21 Aug - 1 Sep 200

    On the neutrality issue in the Polyakov-loop NJL model

    Full text link
    We elucidate how the color neutrality is harmed in the Polyakov Nambu-Jona Lasinio (PNJL) model at finite density within the adopted mean field approximation. Also we point out how usual assumption about the diagonal form of the Wilson loop may fail in the presence of the diquark condensate on several grounds.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Introduction enlarged, several comments about the adopted mean field approximation and the relation with Elitzur's theorem added. Version to appear on Phys. Rev.
    • …
    corecore