Abstract
In animal cells, the transcription factor NF-\(\kappa \)B regulates many stressful, inflammatory, and innate immune responses. Experiments have revealed that, in response to cell stimulation, NF-\(\kappa \)B can exhibit oscillatory dynamics where the nature of these dynamics can influence the pattern of NF-\(\kappa \)B-dependent gene expression. Oscillations in NF-\(\kappa \)B are believed to depend on a negative feedback loop linking NF-\(\kappa \)B and one of its downstream products, namely \(\hbox {I}\kappa \hbox {B}\alpha \). This negative feedback loop is enhanced by cell stimulation. However, it also exists in the absence of cell stimulation. Here we propose a minimal spatio-temporal model of the NF-\(\kappa \)B signalling pathway, composed of partial differential equations. Through numerical simulations, we find various combinations of behaviours before and during cell stimulation: equilibrium dynamics (rapid convergence to a solution that is everywhere constant) before cell stimulation, followed by oscillatory dynamics during cell stimulation; oscillatory dynamics before and during cell stimulation; oscillatory dynamics before cell stimulation, followed by equilibrium dynamics during cell stimulation; and equilibrium dynamics before and during cell stimulation. In each case, when cell stimulation ceases, the model quickly returns to its pre-stimulation behaviour. All of these different combinations of behaviours occur for similar sets of parameter values. Therefore, our results may help to explain why, in experiments on the NF-\(\kappa \)B pathway involving populations of cells, only a certain fraction of the cells exhibit oscillatory dynamics.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 227619, “M5CGS—From Mutations to Metastases: Multiscale Mathematical Modelling of Cancer Growth and Spread”.
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Terry, A.J. A Minimal Spatio-Temporal Model of the NF-\(\kappa \)B Signalling Pathway Exhibits a Range of Behaviours. Bull Math Biol 76, 2363–2388 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-014-0011-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-014-0011-2
Keywords
- NF-\(\kappa \)B
- Genetic oscillator
- Spatio-temporal model
- Negative feedback
- Gene regulatory network
- Cancer