Analysing the role of UVB-induced translational inhibition and PP2Ac deactivation in NF-kappaB signalling using a minimal mathematical model.

Activation of nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) by interleukin-1beta (IL-1) usually results in an anti-apoptotic activity that is rapidly terminated by a negative feedback loop involving NF-kappaB dependent resynthesis of its own inhibitor IkappaBalpha. However, apoptosis induced by ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) is not attenuated, but significantly enhanced by co-stimulation with IL-1 in human epithelial cells. Under these conditions NF-kappaB remains constitutively active and turns into a pro-apoptotic factor by selectively repressing anti-apoptotic genes. Two different mechanisms have been separately proposed to explain UV-induced lack of IkappaBalpha recurrence: global translational inhibition as well as deactivation of the Ser/Thr phosphatase PP2Ac. Using mathematical modelling, we show that the systems behaviour requires a combination of both mechanisms, and we quantify their contribution in different settings. A mathematical model including both mechanisms is developed and fitted to various experimental data sets. A comparison of the model results and predictions with model variants lacking one of the mechanisms shows that both mechanisms are present in our experimental setting. The model is successfully validated by the prediction of independent data. Weak constitutive IKKbeta phosphorylation is shown to be a decisive process in IkappaBalpha degradation induced by UVB stimulation alone, but irrelevant for (co-)stimulations with IL-1. In silico knockout experiments show that translational inhibition is predominantly responsible for lack of IkappaBalpha recurrence following IL-1+UVB stimulation. In case of UVB stimulation alone, cooperation of both processes causes the observed decrease of IkappaBalpha. This shows that the processes leading to activation of transcription factor NF-kappaB upon stimulation with ultraviolet B radiation with and without interleukin-1 costimulation are more complex than previously thought, involving both a cross talk of UVB induced translational inhibition and PP2Ac deactivation. The importance of each of the mechanisms depends on the specific cellular setting.