In solid tumors, cancer cells subjected to ischemic conditions trigger distinct signaling pathways contributing to angiogenic stimulation and tumor development. Characteristic features of tumor ischemia include hypoxia and glucose deprivation, leading to the activation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1-dependent signaling pathways and to complex signaling events known as the unfolded protein response. Here, we show that the activation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress sensor IRE1 is a common determinant linking hypoxia-and hypoglycemia-dependent responses to the up

Radiotherapy (RT) aims to deliver a spatially conformal dose of radiation to tumours while maximizing the dose sparing to healthy tissues. However, the internal patient anatomy is constantly moving due to respiratory, cardiac, gastrointestinal and urinary activity. The long term goal of the RT community to ‘see what we treat, as we treat’ and to act on this information instantaneously has resulted in rapid technological innovation. Specialized treatment machines, such as robotic or gimbal-steered linear accelerators (linac) with in-room imaging suites, have been developed specifically for real-time treatment adaptation. Additional equipment, such as stereoscopic kilovoltage (kV) imaging, ultrasound transducers and electromagnetic transponders, has been developed for intrafraction motion monitoring on conventional linacs. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been integrated with cobalt treatment units and more recently with linacs. In addition to hardware innovation, software development has played a substantial role in the development of motion monitoring methods based on respiratory motion surrogates and planar kV or Megavoltage (MV) imaging that is available on standard equipped linacs. In this paper, we review and compare the different intrafraction motion monitoring methods proposed in the literature and demonstrated in real-time on clinical data as well as their possible future developments. We then discuss general considerations on validation and quality assurance for clinical implementation. Besides photon RT, particle therapy is increasingly used to treat moving targets. However, transferring motion monitoring technologies from linacs to particle beam lines presents substantial challenges. Lessons learned from the implementation of real-time intrafraction monitoring for photon RT will be used as a basis to discuss the implementation of these methods for particle RT.

Protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP-1B) is the prototypic tyrosine phosphatase whose function in insulin signaling and metabolism is well established. Although the role of PTP-1B in dephosphorylating various cell surface receptor tyrosine kinases is clear, the mechanisms by which it modulates receptor function from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) remains an enigma. Here, we provide evidence that PTP-1B has an essential function in regulating the unfolded protein response in the ER compartment. The absence of PTP-1B caused impaired ER stress-induced IRE1 signaling. More specifically, JNK activation, XBP-1 splicing, and EDEM (ER degradation-enhancing ␣-mannosidase-like protein) gene induction, as well as ER stress-induced apoptosis, were attenuated in PTP-1B knock-out mouse embryonic fibroblasts in response to two ER stressors, tunicamycin and azetidine-2 carboxylic acid. We demonstrate that PTP-1B is not just a passive resident of the ER but on the contrary has an essential role in potentiating IRE1-mediated ER stress signaling pathways.

Background: AGR2 is a novel ER protein for which the molecular and cellular functions remain uncharacterized. Results: AGR2 associates to nascent chains in the ER, and its silencing impacts UPR and ERAD and sensitizes cells to autophagy. Conclusion: AGR2 plays an important role in the maintenance of ER homeostasis. Significance: AGR2-mediated control of ER homeostasis could be of importance for cancer development.

In response to stress, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) signaling machinery triggers the inhibition of protein synthesis and up-regulation of genes whose products are involved in protein folding, cell cycle exit, and/or apoptosis. We demonstrate that the misfolding agents azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (Azc) and tunicamycin initiate signaling from the ER, resulting in the activation of Jun-N-terminal kinase, p44 MAPK /extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1 (ERK-1), and p38 MAPK through IRE1␣-dependent mechanisms. To characterize the ER proximal signaling events involved, immuno-isolated ER membranes from rat fibroblasts treated with ER stress inducers were used to reconstitute the activation of the stress-activated protein kinase/mitogen-activate protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in vitro. This allowed us to demonstrate a role for the SH2/SH3 domain containing adaptor Nck in ERK-1 activation after Azc treatment. We also show both in vitro and in vivo that under basal conditions ER-associated Nck represses ERK-1 activation and that upon ER stress this pool of Nck dissociates from the ER membrane to allow ERK-1 activation. Moreover, under the same conditions, Nck-null cells elicit a stronger ERK-1 activation in response to Azc stress, thus, correlating with an enhanced survival phenotype. These data delineate a novel mechanism for the regulation of ER stress signaling to the MAPK pathway and demonstrate a critical role for Nck in ER stress and cell survival.

The function of PMP-22 is unknown, but roles in cell growth, apoptosis, higher order macromolecular structure, and intracellular signaling have been proposed (1). Intrachromosomal duplications (2) and deletions (3) encompassing PMP-22 cause Charcot-MarieTooth disease and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies, respectively. In addition, point mutations have been found in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies, and DejerineSottas syndrome (4). Indeed, the first missense mutations to be identified in the PMP-22 gene were found in the Tr (5) and Tr-J (6) mice with identical point mutations shared between humans and mice (7, 8).Many PMP-22 mutations are retained intracellularly (9-12) and appear to belong to a growing class of mutations termed ''endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention mutations'' that are recognized by ER resident-folding proteins, molecular chaperones, and͞or other enzymes that serve to monitor the fidelity of protein synthesis and macromolecular assembly (13,14). Among ER retention diseases, however, heritable neuropathies caused by PMP-22 mutation or overexpression are unique because they are dominant gain-of-function diseases (15).Here, transient and glucosylation-dependent association of PMP-22 with the ER chaperone calnexin (CNX) was observed. PMP-22 associated only with CNX. Formation of intracellular myelin-like figures (IMLFs) in transfected cells coincided with the cosequestration of CNX in a glucosylation dependent fashion. Similar intracellular myelin-like structures were present in the sciatic nerves of homozygous Tr-J mice. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for the human Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease secondary to the ER retention of mutant PMP-22 via the CNX cycle and provide an unexpected link between the gain-offunction phenotype of such diseases and sequestration of the resident ER lectin chaperone, CNX. Materials and MethodsMetabolic Labeling, Immunoprecipitations, and Western Blot Analysis.Metabolic labeling and pulse-chase of mouse sciatic nerves and immunoprecipitations for PMP-22 (16) as well as nondenaturing CNX immunoprecipitations, BiP immunoprecipitation, and ATP depletion of cell lysates have been described (17, 18). For sequential PMP-22 immunoprecipitations, lysates were first CNX immunoprecipitated as described (17) followed by resolubilization in 0.5% SDS in 50 mM Tris (pH 8.0) and PMP-22 immunoprecipitated in modified radioimmunoprecipitation assay buffer (50 mM Tris, pH 8.0͞150 mM NaCl͞1% deoxycholate containing 0.5% Nonidet P-40). Samples were electrophoresed, transferred to nitrocellulose membranes, and exposed to film by using the Kodak Biomax Transcreen LE system (NEN). For some experiments, sciatic nerves were pretreated with 1 mM castanospermine (SigmaAldrich) for 1 h at 37°C before and during metabolic labeling. Samples were then homogenized in 2% 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate lysis buffer containing 5 mM iodoacetamide and gels processed for fluo...

Although electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for ventilation monitoring is on the verge of clinical trials, pulmonary perfusion imaging with EIT remains a challenge, especially in spontaneously breathing subjects. In anticipation of more research on this subject, we believe a thorough review is called for. In this paper, findings related to the physiological origins and electrical characteristics of this signal are summarized, highlighting properties that are particularly relevant to EIT. The perfusion impedance change signal is significantly smaller in amplitude compared with the changes due to ventilation. Therefore, the hardware used for this purpose must be more sensitive and more resilient to noise. In previous works, some signal- or image-processing methods have been required to separate these two signals. Three different techniques are reviewed in this paper, including the ECG-gating method, frequency-domain-filtering-based methods and a principal-component-analysis-based method. In addition, we review a number of experimental studies on both human and animal subjects that employed EIT for perfusion imaging, with promising results in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) and pulmonary arterial hypertension as well as other potential applications. In our opinion, PE is most likely to become the main focus for perfusion EIT in the future, especially for heavily instrumented patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Eukaryotic cells have developed specific mechanisms to overcome environmental stress. Here we show that the Src homology 2/3 (SH2/SH3) domain-containing protein Nck-1 prevents the unfolded protein response normally induced by pharmacological endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress agents. Overexpression of Nck-1 enhances protein translation, whereas it abrogates eukaryotic initiation factor 2␣ (eIF2␣) phosphorylation and inhibition of translation in response to tunicamycin or thapsigargin treatment. Nck-1 overexpression also attenuates induction of the ER chaperone, the immunoglobulin heavy chain-binding protein (BiP), and impairs cell survival in response to thapsigargin. We provided evidence that in these conditions, the effects of Nck on the unfolded protein response (UPR) involve its second SH3 domain and a calyculin A-sensitive phosphatase activity. In addition, we demonstrated that protein translation is reduced in mouse embryonic fibroblasts lacking both Nck isoforms and is enhanced in similar cells expressing high levels of Nck-1. In these various mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we also provided evidence that Nck modulates the activation of the ER resident eIF2␣ kinase PERK and consequently the phosphorylation of eIF2␣ on Ser-51 in response to stress. Our study establishes that Nck is required for optimal protein translation and demonstrates that, in addition to its adaptor function in mediating signaling from the plasma membrane, Nck also mediates signaling from the ER membrane compartment.