Protein accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum as a non-equilibrium phase transition

Zoe Budrikis, Giulio Costantini, Caterina A. M. La Porta and Stefano Zapperi ()
Additional contact information
Zoe Budrikis: Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Via Alassio 11/C
Giulio Costantini: Istituto per l'Energetica e le Interfasi, CNR-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via R. Cozzi 53
Caterina A. M. La Porta: University of Milano, via Celoria 26
Stefano Zapperi: Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Via Alassio 11/C

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Several neurological disorders are associated with the aggregation of aberrant proteins, often localized in intracellular organelles such as the endoplasmic reticulum. Here we study protein aggregation kinetics by mean-field reactions and three dimensional Monte carlo simulations of diffusion-limited aggregation of linear polymers in a confined space, representing the endoplasmic reticulum. By tuning the rates of protein production and degradation, we show that the system undergoes a non-equilibrium phase transition from a physiological phase with little or no polymer accumulation to a pathological phase characterized by persistent polymerization. A combination of external factors accumulating during the lifetime of a patient can thus slightly modify the phase transition control parameters, tipping the balance from a long symptomless lag phase to an accelerated pathological development. The model can be successfully used to interpret experimental data on amyloid-β clearance from the central nervous system.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4620 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4620

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4620

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().