Emergence of Anti-Cancer Drug Resistance: Exploring the Importance of the Microenvironmental Niche via a Spatial Model

Practically, all chemotherapeutic agents lead to drug resistance. Clinically, it is a challenge to determine whether resistance arises prior to, or as a result of, cancer therapy. Further, a number of different intracellular and microenvironmental factors have been correlated with the emergence of drug resistance. With the goal of better understanding drug resistance and its connection with the tumor microenvironment, we have developed a hybrid discrete-continuous mathematical model. In this model, cancer cells described through a particle-spring approach respond to dynamically changing oxygen and DNA damaging drug concentrations described through partial differential equations. We thoroughly explored the behavior of our self-calibrated model under the following common conditions: a fixed layout of the vasculature, an identical initial configuration of cancer cells, the same mechanism of drug action, and one mechanism of cellular response to the drug. We considered one set of simulations in which drug resistance existed prior to the start of treatment, and another set in which drug resistance is acquired in response to treatment. This allows us to compare how both kinds of resistance influence the spatial and temporal dynamics of the developing tumor, and its clonal diversity. We show that both pre-existing and acquired resistance can give rise to three biologically distinct parameter regimes: successful tumor eradication, reduced effectiveness of drug during the course of treatment (resistance), and complete treatment failure

Hedgehog pathway mutations drive oncogenic transformation in high-risk T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The role of Hedgehog signaling in normal and malignant T-cell development is controversial. Recently, Hedgehog pathway mutations have been described in T-ALL, but whether mutational activation of Hedgehog signaling drives T-cell transformation is unknown, hindering the rationale for therapeutic intervention. Here, we show that Hedgehog pathway mutations predict chemotherapy resistance in human T-ALL, and drive oncogenic transformation in a zebrafish model of the disease. We found Hedgehog pathway mutations in 16% of 109 childhood T-ALL cases, most commonly affecting its negative regulator PTCH1. Hedgehog mutations were associated with resistance to induction chemotherapy (P = 0.009). Transduction of wild-type PTCH1 into PTCH1-mutant T-ALL cells induced apoptosis (P = 0.005), a phenotype that was reversed by downstream Hedgehog pathway activation (P = 0.007). Transduction of most mutant PTCH1, SUFU, and GLI alleles into mammalian cells induced aberrant regulation of Hedgehog signaling, indicating that these mutations are pathogenic. Using a CRISPR/Cas9 system for lineage-restricted gene disruption in transgenic zebrafish, we found that ptch1 mutations accelerated the onset of notch1-induced T-ALL (P = 0.0001), and pharmacologic Hedgehog pathway inhibition had therapeutic activity. Thus, Hedgehog-activating mutations are driver oncogenic alterations in high-risk T-ALL, providing a molecular rationale for targeted therapy in this disease

Predominant Role of Nuclear Versus Membrane Estrogen Receptor α in Arterial Protection: Implications for Estrogen Receptor α Modulation in Cardiovascular Prevention/Safety

BACKGROUND: Although estrogen receptor α (ERα) acts primarily as a transcription factor, it can also elicit membrane-initiated steroid signaling. Pharmacological tools and transgenic mouse models previously highlighted the key role of ERα membrane-initiated steroid signaling in 2 actions of estrogens in the endothelium: increase in NO production and acceleration of reendothelialization. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using mice with ERα mutated at cysteine 451 (ERaC451A), recognized as the key palmitoylation site required for ERα plasma membrane location, and mice with disruption of nuclear actions because of inactivation of activation function 2 (ERaAF20 = ERaAF2°), we sought to fully characterize the respective roles of nuclear membrane-initiated steroid signaling in the arterial protection conferred by ERα. ERaC451A mice were fully responsive to estrogens to prevent atheroma and angiotensin II-induced hypertension as well as to allow flow-mediated arteriolar remodeling. By contrast, ERαAF20 mice were unresponsive to estrogens for these beneficial vascular effects. Accordingly, selective activation of nuclear ERα with estetrol was able to prevent hypertension and to restore flow-mediated arteriolar remodeling. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, these results reveal an unexpected prominent role of nuclear ERα in the vasculoprotective action of estrogens with major implications in medicine, particularly for selective nuclear ERα agonist, such as estetrol, which is currently under development as a new oral contraceptive and for hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

High systemic IL-6 is associated with worse prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Characteristic cytokine patterns have been described in different cancer patients and they are related to their diagnosis, prognosis, prediction of treatment responses and survival. A panel of cytokines was evaluated in the plasma of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and healthy controls to investigate their profile and relationship with clinical characteristics and overall survival. The case-controlled cross-sectional study design recruited 77 patients with confirmed diagnosis of NSCLC (cases) and 91 healthy subjects (controls) aimed to examine peripheral pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17A, TNF and IFN-gamma) by Cytometry Beads Arrays (CBA Flex) in. The cytokine IL-6 showed a statistically significant difference among groups with increased expression in the case group (p < 0.001). The correlation between the cytokines expression with patient's clinical characteristics variables revealed the cytokine IL-6 was found to be associated with gender, showing higher levels in male (p = 0.036), whereas IL-17A levels were associated with TNM stage, being higher in III-IV stages (p = 0.044). We observed worse overall survival for individuals with high levels of IL-6 when compared to those with low levels of this cytokine in 6, 12 and 24 months. Further studies of IL-6 levels in independent cohort could clarify the real role of IL-6 as an independent marker of prognostic of NSCLC.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tencnológico (CNPq) [Grant number 401775/2012-7 to ALF]; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) [Grant number 2014/ 23414-8 to EMS]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Experimental demonstration of extended depth-of-field f/1.2f/1.2 visible High Definition camera with jointly optimized phase mask and real-time digital processing

International audienceIncreasing the depth of field (DOF) of compact visible high resolution cameras while maintaining high imaging performance in the DOF range is crucial for such applications as night vision goggles or industrial inspection. In this paper, we present the end-to-end design and experimental validation of an extended depth-of-field visible High Definition camera with a very small f-number, combining a six-ring pyramidal phase mask in the aperture stop of the lens with a digital deconvolution. The phase mask and the deconvolution algorithm are jointly optimized during the design step so as to maximize the quality of the deconvolved image over the DOF range. The deconvolution processing is implemented in real-time on a Field-Programmable Gate Array and we show that it requires very low power consumption. By mean of MTF measurements and imaging experiments we experimentally characterize the performance of both cameras with and without phase mask and thereby demonstrate a significant increase in depth of field of a factor 2.5, as it was expected in the design step

A search for the dimuon decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector

A search for the dimuon decay of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson is performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector in Run 2 pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed (expected) significance over the background-only hypothesis for a Higgs boson with a mass of 125.09 GeV is 2.0 sigma (1.7 sigma). The observed upper limit on the cross section times branching ratio for pp -&gt; H -&gt; mu mu is 2.2 times the SM prediction at 95% confidence level, while the expected limit on a H -&gt; mu mu signal assuming the absence (presence) of a SM signal is 1.1(2.0). The best-fit value of the signal strength parameter, defined as the ratio of the observed signal yield to the one expected in the SM, is mu = 1.2 +/- 0.6. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V