Mechanical and Systems Biology of Cancer

TL;DR

This paper reviews how mechanical properties and biochemical signaling interplay in cancer, affecting cell behavior and tumor progression, and highlights the role of computational models in understanding these complex interactions.

Contribution

It provides an integrated overview of cancer cell mechanics and signaling, emphasizing the importance of computational models tailored to cancer for predictive insights.

Findings

Cytoskeletal dynamics influence cell tension and stiffness.

Extracellular matrix remodeling is driven by mechanical and biochemical cues.

Computational models can predict tumor progression by integrating signaling and mechanics.

Abstract

Mechanics and biochemical signaling are both often deregulated in cancer, leading to cancer cell phenotypes that exhibit increased invasiveness, proliferation, and survival. The dynamics and interactions of cytoskeletal components control basic mechanical properties, such as cell tension, stiffness, and engagement with the extracellular environment, which can lead to extracellular matrix remodeling. Intracellular mechanics can alter signaling and transcription factors, impacting cell decision making. Additionally, signaling from soluble and mechanical factors in the extracellular environment, such as substrate stiffness and ligand density, can modulate cytoskeletal dynamics. Computational models closely integrated with experimental support, incorporating cancer-specific parameters, can provide quantitative assessments and serve as predictive tools toward dissecting the feedback between signaling and mechanics and across multiple scales and domains in tumor progression.