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Towards a predictive and deterministic understanding of transmitotic cell fates during TRAIL-induced cell death signalling

Subject Area Cell Biology
Term from 2021 to 2025
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 459777805
 
Final Report Year 2025

Final Report Abstract

A subtle balance between cell proliferation and cell death is essential for physiological homeostasis, and its dysregulation contributes to cancer development. In our work, we focused on TRAIL-induced apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death initiated by death receptor signaling, and investigated how cell cycle progression influences cellular susceptibility. Our analyses provided new insights into how and when individual cell fates, death versus survival, are determined following TRAIL stimulation. We elucidated that the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein MCL-1 plays a central role. Using advanced live-cell imaging, singlecell analysis tools and mathematical modelling, we quantitatively and kinetically characterized MCL-1 dynamics and correlated these with apoptosis susceptibility. Importantly we found that after caspase-8 activation, the cell cycle-regulated amounts of MCL-1 and independently also the regulated redistribution of MCL-1 towards mitochondria sets an overall cell death threshold, individually for every single cell. Altogether, our work has therefore allowed us to obtain a deep understanding of cell fate decisions at the interface of cell cycle progression and extrinsic apoptosis. We addressed a previously understudied but highly relevant facet of cell death regulation, with implications for understanding therapy resistance and improving the efficacy of apoptosis-based cancer therapies.

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