Search results for "NFOL"
showing 10 items of 144 documents
Assessment of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and the Unfolded Protein Response in Endothelial Cells
2011
In the vascular wall, the most inner cell layer that separates the blood from organelles is comprised of only a single layer of endothelial cells (ECs). This cell type is fundamental to a large variety of processes, ranging from blood coagulation and interaction with inflammatory cells to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Dysfunction of ECs is often causally linked to these processes such that research exploring such events attracted much attention. Damage of ECs and subsequent disruption of the intact endothelial barrier can result not only from oxidative stress, but also from conditions that stress the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and induce a sign…
Curvature and Torsion of Protein Main Chain as Local Order Parameters of Protein Unfolding
2020
International audience; Thermal protein unfolding resembles a global (two-state) phase transition. At the local scale, protein unfolding is, however, heterogeneous and probe dependent. Here, we consider local order parameters defined by the local curvature and torsion of the protein main chain. Because chemical shift (CS) measured by NMR spectroscopy is extremely sensitive to the local atomic environment, CS has served as a local probe of thermal unfolding of proteins by varying the position of the atomic isotope along the amino-acid sequence. The variation of the CS of each C(alpha) atom along the sequence as a function of the temperature defines a local heat-induced denaturation curve. We…
Paraoxonase-2 Reduces Oxidative Stress in Vascular Cells and Decreases Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress–Induced Caspase Activation
2007
Background— In the vascular system, elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produce oxidative stress and predispose to the development of atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is important to understand the systems producing and those scavenging vascular ROS. Here, we analyzed the ROS-reducing capability of paraoxonase-2 (PON2) in different vascular cells and its involvement in the endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway known as the unfolded protein response. Methods and Results— Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting revealed that PON2 is equally expressed in vascular cells and appears in 2 distinct glycosylated isoforms. By determining intracellular ROS, we…
Perturbed interactions of mutant proteolipid protein/DM20 with cholesterol and lipid rafts in oligodendroglia: implications for dysmyelination in spa…
2006
Missense mutations in the humanPLP1gene lead to dysmyelinating diseases with a broad range of clinical severity, ranging from severe Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease (PMD) to milder spastic paraplegia type 2 (SPG-2). The molecular pathology has been generally attributed to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of misfolded proteolipid protein (PLP) (and its splice isoform DM20) and induction of the unfolded protein response. As opposed to previous studies of heterologous expression systems, we have analyzed PLP/DM20 trafficking in oligodendroglial cells, thereby revealing differences between PMD and SPG-2-associated PLP/DM20 isoforms. PLPA242Vand DM20A242V(jimpy-msdin mice), associated with seve…
Mechanical unfolding pathway of a model β-peptide foldamer.
2015
Foldamers constructed from oligomers of β-peptides form stable secondary helix structures already for small chain lengths, which makes them ideal candidates for the investigation of the (un)folding of polypeptides. Here, the results of molecular simulations of the mechanical unfolding of a β-heptapeptide in methanol solvent revealing the detailed unfolding pathway are reported. The unfolding process is shown to proceed via a stable intermediate even for such a small system. This result is arrived at performing non-equilibrium force ramp simulations employing different pulling velocities and also using standard calculations of the potential of mean force, i.e., the free energy as a function …
Synthetic lethal metabolic targeting of cellular senescence in cancer therapy.
2013
Activated oncogenes and anticancer chemotherapy induce cellular senescence, a terminal growth arrest of viable cells characterized by S-phase entry-blocking histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3). Although therapy-induced senescence (TIS) improves long-term outcomes, potentially harmful properties of senescent tumour cells make their quantitative elimination a therapeutic priority. Here we use the Eµ-myc transgenic mouse lymphoma model in which TIS depends on the H3K9 histone methyltransferase Suv39h1 to show the mechanism and therapeutic exploitation of senescence-related metabolic reprogramming in vitro and in vivo. After senescence-inducing chemotherapy, TIS-competent lymphomas but …
Landscape Architecture and the Green Deal Dare: Five Successful Experiences in Urban Open Spaces
2022
The present work focuses on European cities’ environments and open spaces, aiming to demonstrate how, through landscape architecture, it is possible to respond effectively to many of the ecological and social hardships that the Green Deal aspires to alleviate. It was signed in 2019 by all of the member countries of the Union, seeks to reverse the climate change trend by establishing a series of goals for improving environmental and economic quality for 2030 and 2050 and also aims to enact social justice in rural areas and in the urban environment. Landscape architecture, which is the art of combining the physical and immaterial elements in cities’ open spaces, is taken in this w…
L'Orchestra di Auschwitz. Inchiesta su Alma Rosé
2023
Il libro è un'inchiesta sulla vita e il tempo di Alma Rosé (1906-1944), nipote di Gustav Mahler, debuttante e ragazza alla moda fra gli anni Venti e Trenta del secolo scorso, violinista il cui talento matura – paradossalmente – mentre l’ombra del nazismo si dispiega sull’Europa e infine direttrice dell’orchestra di Auschwitz. in un’epoca in cui la carriera del direttore d’orchestra era declinata soltanto al maschile. Giunta ad Auschwitz nell’estate 1943 e assegnata dapprima al Block degli esperimenti medici, Alma riuscì in breve tempo a diventare – nel piccolo mondo terribile del Lager – una specie di celebrità: ed è in quelle tenebre, d’altronde, che si svolge l’atto finale del dramma, oss…
2-Hydroxyoleic Acid Induces ER Stress and Autophagy in Various Human Glioma Cell Lines
2012
Background: 2-Hydroxyoleic acid is a synthetic fatty acid with potent anti-cancer activity which does not induce undesired side effects. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which this compound selectively kills human glioma cancer cells without killing normal cells is not fully understood. The present study was designed to determine the molecular bases underlying the potency against 1321N1, SF-767 and U118 human glioma cell lines growth without affecting non cancer MRC-5 cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: The cellular levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, unfolded protein response (UPR) and autophagy markers were determined by quantitative RT-PCR and immunoblotting …
Protective effect of paraoxonase-2 against endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced apoptosis is lost upon disturbance of calcium homoeostasis
2008
PON2 (paraoxonase-2) is a ubiquitously expressed antioxidative protein which is largely found in the ER (endoplasmic reticulum). Addressing the cytoprotective functions of PON2, we observed that PON2 overexpression provided significant resistance to ER-stress-induced caspase 3 activation when the ER stress was induced by interference with protein modification (by tunicamycin or dithiothreitol), but not when ER stress was induced by disturbance of Ca2+ homoeostasis (by thapsigargin or A23187). When analysing the underlying molecular events, we found an activation of the PON2 promoter in response to all tested ER-stress-inducing stimuli. However, only tunicamycin and dithiothreitol resulted i…