Papers by Paulina Alejandra Rioseco Soto
Brain Research, 2016
The major clinical feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is impairment in motor control as a result... more The major clinical feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is impairment in motor control as a result of extensive dopaminergic neuron loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta. The central pathological hallmark of PD is the formation of neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions of insoluble proteins called Lewy bodies, of which fibrillar aggregates of misfolded αSynuclein are the major components. Despite intense research on the pathogenic mechanism that trigger neuronal loss and disease progression, the neurogenesis of PD remains unknown. However, studies on genetics of PD have identified specific genes and proteins linked to this disease. Genetic mutations linked with different forms of familial PD have unveiled a closer relationship between pathology and impairments at different points in the secretory pathway. Accumulation of misfolded/unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and disruptions in protein clearance mechanisms result in activation of an adaptive stress pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). UPR signaling is mediated by three stress sensors that induce independent and convergent signaling branches that help to maintain homeostasis, or eventually trigger cell death under chronic stress conditions. Signs of ER stress are observed in post-mortem tissue from sporadic human PD cases and in most animal models of the disease, implicating all three branches of this cellular response. However, the exact contribution of the UPR in the progression of PD or in dopaminergic neuron survival is not yet well understood. A large number of studies reveal a clear activation of the UPR in toxicological models resembling sporadic PD, where ATF6, XBP1 and CHOP have a functional role in controlling dopaminergic neuron survival in neurotoxin-based models of PD in vivo. Also pharmacological and gene therapy approaches aimed to target different points of this pathway have revealed an important functional role in PD pathogenesis. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI:ER stress.
The considered system is a Kapitza's pendulum that consists of a disk that spins at constant... more The considered system is a Kapitza's pendulum that consists of a disk that spins at constant angular velocity, from which edge is attached a massless rigid rod with an electrically charged bob. The system is studied theoretically and experimentally. The motion equations are settled and solved both, analytically under the small oscillation assumption considering the interaction of the system with black body radiaton as a perturbation, and in the general case using numerical algorithms. The pendulum's dynamics is studied varying both initial conditions and parameters in small steps. In order to identify regions of stable and chaotic motion, Lyapunov's exponents are calculated. Phase and configuration spaces are plotted to notice periodical and erratic behaviors. Poincare sections and fast Fourier transforms are obtained to identify resonance cases.
Uploads
Papers by Paulina Alejandra Rioseco Soto