Els carcinomes són tumors d'origen epitelial que constitueixen aproximadament el 90% dels tumors humans. La progressió tumoral implica diferents etapes: creixement del tumor primari, invasió local, intravasació, extravasació i proliferació de les cèl·lules tumorals en un nou òrgan on formen un tumor secundari o metàstasi. Són, precisament, les metàstasis la principal causa de mort dels malalts de càncer.La invasió local dels carcinomes requereix la pèrdua de l'expressió o de la funció de la molècula d'adhesió cadherina E, la qual és un supressor d'invasió. A més, el procés d'invasió també va acompanyat de la pèrdua d'altres marcadors epitelials, de l'adquisició de marcadors mesenquimals i de l'augment de les propietats migratòries i invasives. Aquests canvis tenen un gran paral·lelisme amb la conversió fenotípica que té lloc durant el desenvolupament embrionari i que s'anomena transició epiteli-mesènquima (TEM). El principal mecanisme que regula el silenciament de la cadherina E és la repressió transcripcional, i recentment s'han caracteritzat diversos factors de transcripció que a través de la seva interacció amb les caixes E (de seqüència CANNTG) del promotor de la cadherina E reprimeixen la seva expressió: Snail, Slug, E47, Twist, ZEB-1 i ZEB-2. L'expressió estable de Snail o E47 en les cèl·lules epitelials Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) indueix un procés de TEM complet, però no es coneix el mecanisme. Moltes de les alteracions que es donen en la TEM poden ser explicades com a conseqüència de la repressió de la cadherina E, però altres events cel·lulars, independents de la dissociació cel·lular, contribuirien també a la iniciació i completació del procés. Per aquest motiu, en aquesta Tesi s'ha realitzat l'anàlisi de l'expressió gènica diferencial mitjançant RAP-PCR i microarrays de cDNA per identificar gens implicats en el procés de TEM induït per Snail o E47. Així, s'han trobat gens que codifiquen per proteïnes relacionades amb diverses funcions cel·lulars com cicle cel·lular, apoptosi, metabolisme o senyalització, però el grup majoritari és el de gens implicats en migració i invasió (adhesió cel·lular, citoesquelet, matriu extracel·lular -MEC- i proteases de MEC). Aquest estudi mostra a més que l'expressió estable de Snail o E47 en les cèl·lules MDCK indueix programes genètics en part comuns i en part específics, suggerint el paper diferencial d'aquests dos factors de transcripció en la progressió tumoral. Per altra banda, s'ha estudiat el mecanisme que regula la sobreexpressió de la metal·loproteasa MMP-9 i del factor de transcripció Id-1 que es dóna en la TEM induïda tant per Snail com per E47. L'activació transcripcional de MMP-9 és induïda per Snail i E47 de forma indirecta i mediada per altres factors de transcripció tals com Ets-1 i Sp1 que s'uneixen a la regió proximal del promotor formant un multicomplexe, i NFkB/p65 que interacciona amb una regió més distal. En canvi, l'activació transcripcional d'Id-1 és regulada principalment a través de la segona caixa E del promotor humà que interacciona amb E47. Pel que fa a Snail, no hem pogut confirmar si s'uneix directament a aquest element o indueix l'expressió d'un altre factor de transcripció capaç d'unir-s'hi. També és important la caixa GC adjacent a la caixa E que recluta Sp1. Tant l'activació de MMP-9 com d'Id-1 és regulada per la via Erk/MAPK (activada per Snail i E47) que fosforila almenys Sp1. Aquests resultats juntament amb l'expressió coneguda de Snail i E47 en línies cel·lulars de carcinoma podrien explicar la sobreexpressió de MMP-9 i Id-1 en molts tumors. / Carcinomas are tumors of epithelial origin that comprise approximately 90% of human tumors. Tumor progression is a multistep process: growth of primary tumor, local invasion, intravasation, extravasation and proliferation of malignant cells in a new organ where they form a secondary tumor or metastasis. Metastasis are the main cause of death of cancer patients.Local invasion of carcinomas requires loss of E-cadherin expression or function, which is an adhesion molecule and a well established invasion supressor. In addition, invasion process is accompanied by loss of other epithelial molecules, acquisition of mesenquimal markers and gain of migratory and invasive properties. These changes have many parallels with the phenotypic conversion that takes place during embryonic development known as epithelial-mesenquimal transition (EMT). The main mechanism that regulates E-cahderin silence is transcripcional repression, and recently several transcription factors have been characterized as E-cadherin repressors through their interaction with the E-boxes (of sequence CANNTG) of the promoter: Snail, Slug, E47, Twist, ZEB-1 and ZEB-2.Stable expression of Snail or E47 in Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells induce a complete EMT, but the mechanism that govern it is not known yet. Some of the alterations that occur during EMT can be explained as a consequence of E-cadherin repression, but other cellular events, independent from cellular dissociation, may contribute to the initiation and completion of the process. For this reason, in this Thesis we made a differential expression analysis by RAP-PCR and cDNA microarrays to identify genes implicated in Snail and E47 induced EMT. Thus we found genes related to different cellular functions such as cellular cycle, apoptosis, metabolism and signaling, but the great group was composed by genes implicated in migration and invasion (cellular adhesion, cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix -EMC- and EMC proteases). This study shows that Snail or E47 expression in MDCK cells induce common and specific genetic programs, suggesting a differential role for these transcription factors in tumor progression.On the other hand, we studied the mechanism that regulates metalloprotease MMP-9 and transcription factor Id-1 upregulation in Snail and E47 induced EMT. Snail and E47 induced activation of MMP-9 is indirect and mediated by other transcription factors such as Ets-1 and Sp1 that bind to the proximal region of promoter forming a multicomplex, and NFkB/p65 that interacts with a more distal region. On the contrary, Id-1 transcriptional activation is regulated mainly through the second E-box of human promoter that recruits E47. At the moment, we have not been able to confirm whether Snail binds directly to this element or it induces the expression of another factor that interacts with the E-box. It is also important the GC-box adjacent to this E-box that binds Sp1. Either MMP-9 or Id-1 activation are regulated by Erk/MAPK pathway(activated by Snail and E47) that phosphorilates at least Sp1. These results together with known expression of Snail and E47 in carcinoma cell lines may explain MMP-9 and Id-1 upregulation in tumors.

Effective therapeutics are urgently needed to improve the treatment and survival of cancer patients and we believe that targeting the MYC oncogene would fill this gap. Our strategy to achieve this goal involves the design of minimalist hybrid protein inhibitors (MHP) - 25-75 amino acid proteins composed of subdomains of known transcription factor families to generate hybrids that act as structural competitive inhibitors of the Myc/Max:DNA E-box interaction. We have established cell systems, reagents and assays using our prototype MHP, ME47 to evaluate the biological effectiveness of this putative inhibitor as well as subsequently designed MHPs using cell-based proliferation and transformation assays. Omomyc was included as a proof-of-concept control to optimize our systems and gauge the performance of ME47. This research demonstrates for the first time that ME47 exerts desirable biological effects in human cells lines and provides support for the validity of our MHP strategy thus warranting further investigation.

Effective therapeutics are urgently needed to improve the treatment and survival of cancer patients and we believe that targeting the MYC oncogene would fill this gap. Our strategy to achieve this goal involves the design of minimalist hybrid protein inhibitors (MHP) - 25-75 amino acid proteins composed of subdomains of known transcription factor families to generate hybrids that act as structural competitive inhibitors of the Myc/Max:DNA E-box interaction. We have established cell systems, reagents and assays using our prototype MHP, ME47 to evaluate the biological effectiveness of this putative inhibitor as well as subsequently designed MHPs using cell-based proliferation and transformation assays. Omomyc was included as a proof-of-concept control to optimize our systems and gauge the performance of ME47. This research demonstrates for the first time that ME47 exerts desirable biological effects in human cells lines and provides support for the validity of our MHP strategy thus warranting further investigation.

This paper puts forward a Bayesian Global Vector Autoregressive Model with Common Stochastic Volatility (B-GVAR-CSV). We assume that Country specific volatility is driven by a single latent stochastic process, which simplifies the analysis and implies significant computational gains. Apart from computational advantages, this is also justified on the ground that the volatility of most macroeconomic quantities considered in our application tends to follow a similar pattern. Furthermore, Minnesota priors are used to introduce shrinkage to cure the curse of dimensionality. Finally, this model is then used to produce predictive densities for a set of macroeconomic aggregates. The dataset employed consists of quarterly data spanning from 1995:Q1 to 2012:Q4 and includes 45 economies plus the Euro Area. Our results indicate that stochastic volatility specifications influences accuracy along two dimensions: First, it helps to increase the overall predictive fit of our model. This result can be seen for some variables under scrutiny, most notably for real GDP and short-term interest rates. Second, it helps to make the model more resilient with respect to outliers and economic crises. This implies that when evaluated over time, the log predictive scores tend to show significantly less variation as compared to homoscedastic models. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:18:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo8468_1.pdf: 2039544 bytes, checksum: 0b095bf302ff0683000a9c9bbea879d7 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O presente trabalho faz uma exploração dos mais importantes mercados financeiros e monetários no Brasil sob a ótica de simulações nas taxas de juros da economia e é composto por três estudos. No primeiro estudo foi analisado como são formadas as taxas de juros e os spreads que incidem sobre os cartões de pagamentos, em especial sobre os cartões de crédito no Brasil. No segundo, foram desenvolvidos aspectos microeconômicos do problema de racionamento de crédito e foi analisado como os bancos comerciais, numa atitude racional de maximizar seus lucros esperados, aumentaram sua aversão ao risco em relação às operações de financiamentos destinadas às indústrias. No terceiro e último estudo, foi realizada uma abordagem macroeconômica de política monetária no Brasil num ambiente de fricções nominais de preços e salários na qual se utilizou modelagem dinâmica estocástica de equilíbrio geral (DSGE) para simular a influência de choques na taxa de juros sobre as variáveis macroeconômicas como inflação, investimento, consumo, emprego, produto marginal do capital e oferta total de moeda, taxa de crescimento da moeda, taxa de juros, entre outras variáveis consistentes com os comportamentos microeconômicos dos agentes encontrando efeitos persistentes desses choques

Transcription factors are proteins that regulate transcription of genes by binding to specific DNA sequences proximal to the gene. The specificity and affinity of protein-DNA recognition is critical for proper gene regulation. This thesis explores the mechanisms of binding to the sequence 5’CACGTG, a common recognition sequence both in plants where it is known as the G-box and in mammalian cells where it is termed the E-box. This sequence is of clinical interest because it is the target of the transcription factor Myc, an oncogene linked to many cancers. A number of alpha-helical proteins with different dimerization elements, from the basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP), basic region helix-loop-helix leucine zipper (bHLHZ) and basic region helix-loop-helix-PAS (bHLH-PAS) protein families, are capable of binding to this sequence. The basic regions of all these protein families contain residues that contact DNA and determine DNA sequence specificity while the other subdomains are responsible for dimerization specificity. First, the influence of protein-DNA contacts on sequence specificity of the plant bZIP protein EmBP-1 was probed by point mutations in the basic region. Residues that contact the DNA outside the core G-box sequence and residues that contact the phosphate backbone were found to be important for sequence specificity. Second, the impact of the dimerization subdomains of bHLHZ protein Max, the required heterodimerization partner of the Myc protein, and bHLH-PAS protein Arnt was probed by mutation, deletion and inter-family subdomain swapping studies. All studied protein families are intrinsically disordered, forming structure upon dimerization and DNA binding. The dimerization domains were found to indirectly influence DNA binding by affecting folding, dimerization ability or proper orientation of the basic regions relative to DNA. Lastly, a new strategy for selection of G-box binding proteins in the Yeast One-hybrid system is explored. Together, these studies broaden our understanding of the structure-function relationship of the DNA-binding activities of these closely related families of transcription factors. The creation and characterization of mutants with altered specificity, affinity and dimerization specificity may also be useful for biotechnology applications.

Transcription factors are proteins that regulate transcription of genes by binding to specific DNA sequences proximal to the gene. The specificity and affinity of protein-DNA recognition is critical for proper gene regulation. This thesis explores the mechanisms of binding to the sequence 5’CACGTG, a common recognition sequence both in plants where it is known as the G-box and in mammalian cells where it is termed the E-box. This sequence is of clinical interest because it is the target of the transcription factor Myc, an oncogene linked to many cancers. A number of alpha-helical proteins with different dimerization elements, from the basic region-leucine zipper (bZIP), basic region helix-loop-helix leucine zipper (bHLHZ) and basic region helix-loop-helix-PAS (bHLH-PAS) protein families, are capable of binding to this sequence. The basic regions of all these protein families contain residues that contact DNA and determine DNA sequence specificity while the other subdomains are responsible for dimerization specificity. First, the influence of protein-DNA contacts on sequence specificity of the plant bZIP protein EmBP-1 was probed by point mutations in the basic region. Residues that contact the DNA outside the core G-box sequence and residues that contact the phosphate backbone were found to be important for sequence specificity. Second, the impact of the dimerization subdomains of bHLHZ protein Max, the required heterodimerization partner of the Myc protein, and bHLH-PAS protein Arnt was probed by mutation, deletion and inter-family subdomain swapping studies. All studied protein families are intrinsically disordered, forming structure upon dimerization and DNA binding. The dimerization domains were found to indirectly influence DNA binding by affecting folding, dimerization ability or proper orientation of the basic regions relative to DNA. Lastly, a new strategy for selection of G-box binding proteins in the Yeast One-hybrid system is explored. Together, these studies broaden our understanding of the structure-function relationship of the DNA-binding activities of these closely related families of transcription factors. The creation and characterization of mutants with altered specificity, affinity and dimerization specificity may also be useful for biotechnology applications.