University of Graz

About: University of Graz is a education organization based out in Graz, Steiermark, Austria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 17934 authors who have published 37489 publications receiving 1110980 citations. The organization is also known as: Carolo Franciscea Graecensis & Karl Franzens Universität.

Consensus guidelines for the detection of immunogenic cell death

Abstract: Apoptotic cells have long been considered as intrinsically tolerogenic or unable to elicit immune responses specific for dead cell-associated antigens. However, multiple stimuli can trigger a functionally peculiar type of apoptotic demise that does not go unnoticed by the adaptive arm of the immune system, which we named "immunogenic cell death" (ICD). ICD is preceded or accompanied by the emission of a series of immunostimulatory damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) in a precise spatiotemporal configuration. Several anticancer agents that have been successfully employed in the clinic for decades, including various chemotherapeutics and radiotherapy, can elicit ICD. Moreover, defects in the components that underlie the capacity of the immune system to perceive cell death as immunogenic negatively influence disease outcome among cancer patients treated with ICD inducers. Thus, ICD has profound clinical and therapeutic implications. Unfortunately, the gold-standard approach to detect ICD relies on vaccination experiments involving immunocompetent murine models and syngeneic cancer cells, an approach that is incompatible with large screening campaigns. Here, we outline strategies conceived to detect surrogate markers of ICD in vitro and to screen large chemical libraries for putative ICD inducers, based on a high-content, high-throughput platform that we recently developed. Such a platform allows for the detection of multiple DAMPs, like cell surface-exposed calreticulin, extracellular ATP and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), and/or the processes that underlie their emission, such as endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy and necrotic plasma membrane permeabilization. We surmise that this technology will facilitate the development of next-generation anticancer regimens, which kill malignant cells and simultaneously convert them into a cancer-specific therapeutic vaccine.

Transport coefficients from first-principles calculations

Abstract: We present a method of modeling transport coefficients from first-principles calculations. We introduce the transport distribution that contains all electronic information and from which transport coefficients can easily be calculated. We use this method to analyze ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ and calculate its transport coefficients for a comparison with experiment. The transport distribution gives an improved insight into the relationship between transport properties and electronic structure and is a valuable tool in the search for improved thermoelectric materials.

ERD/ERS patterns reflecting sensorimotor activation and deactivation.

Abstract: Oscillations in the alpha and beta band (<35 Hz) show characteristic spatiotemporal patterns during sensorimotor processing. Whereas event-related desynchronization (ERD) during motor preparation, execution, and imagery can be seen as a correlate of an activated cortical area, event-related synchronization (ERS) of frequency components between 10 and 13 Hz may represent a deactivated cortical area or inhibited cortical network, at least under certain conditions. Induced beta rhythms (13–35 Hz, beta ERS) can be found in sensorimotor areas following both voluntary movement and somatosensory stimulation. In a recent study we used different tasks involving execution and imagery of movements of the upper and lower limb to produce activation vs. deactivation/inhibition of the sensorimotor hand area. Sensorimotor interference, as a function of the activation level of the motor cortex, was studied by the use of repetitive median nerve stimulation (MNS) (ISI 1.5 s) in 12 healthy volunteers during the following task conditions: (i) cube manipulation between thumb and fingers of one hand, (ii) imagined cube manipulation, (iii) continuous foot rotation movements, and (iv) imagined foot movements. EEG was recorded from hand and foot representation areas and processed time-locked to MNS (ERD/ERS). In addition, task-related band power changes (TRPD/TRPI) were analyzed. We found a clear-cut suppression of the stimulation-induced beta ERS (indicating an enhanced activity state of the sensorimotor areas) during active cube manipulation and a weaker suppression during cube imagery. Mental imagination of foot movement led to an increase of the hand area mu rhythm, but did not interfere with stimulation-related effects on beta ERS. These findings support that interfering sensorimotor activation and deactivation is reflected in graduated changes of induced mu and beta oscillations.