The cell cycle related rhythms, cells' states correlation and the cancer

TL;DR

This paper models mammalian cell decision-making as a dynamic system influenced by rhythms and correlations, proposing that disruptions in these correlations and causal relations may lead to cancer development.

Contribution

It introduces a four-dimensional dynamic model of healthy cell rhythms and links the disruption of cell state correlations and causal relations to cancer origins.

Findings

Healthy cells show strong internal state correlations

Cancer cells exhibit high correlation between their states

Disruption of cell state correlations may lead to cancer

Abstract

We consider the decision making by mammalian cells, looking them as dynamic systems with rhythms. We calculate the effective dimension of the cell division model of the healthy mammalian cells consistent with the data: it is described via a four dimensional dynamic system. We assume that the cell's decision making property is strongly affected by the cells rhythms, their causal relations, and by the correlation between internal states of different cells in tissue. There is a strong correlation between the states of different healthy cells (verified partially experimentally), and we assume that there is no such a correlation between internal states of the healthy and cancer cells. The origins of the cancer are just the disruption of this correlation (self-identification of the cells) and the change of the causal relations between the Circadian and cell cycle rhythms. Assuming the Gaussian channel version of the cell-cell communications and a key role of public goods for the cancer cells, we get a strong correlation between the states of different cancer cells.