Eur. Phys. J. B 29, 135-140 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00271-1

Time delay as a key to apoptosis induction in the p53 network

¹ Department of Physics, University of Milano and INFN, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
² The Niels Bohr Institute Bledgamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
³ Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

Corresponding author: ^a tiana@mi.infn.it

Received: 8 May 2002
Revised: 9 July 2002
Published online: 17 September 2002

Abstract

A feedback mechanism that involves the proteins p53 and mdm2, induces cell death as a controlled response to severe DNA damage. A minimal model for this mechanism demonstrates that the response may be dynamic and connected with the time needed to translate the mdm2 protein. The response takes place if the dissociation constant k between p53 and mdm2 varies from its normal value. Although it is widely believed that it is an increase in k that triggers the response, we show that the experimental behaviour is better described by a decrease in the dissociation constant. The response is quite robust upon changes in the parameters of the system, as required by any control mechanism, except for few weak points, which could be connected with the onset of cancer.