Cancer and Chaos and the Complex Network Model of a Multicellular Organism

Biology (Basel). 2022 Sep 5;11(9):1317. doi: 10.3390/biology11091317.

Abstract

In the search of theoretical models describing cancer, one of promising directions is chaos. It is connected to ideas of "genome chaos" and "life on the edge of chaos", but they profoundly differ in the meaning of the term "chaos". To build any coherent models, notions used by both ideas should be firstly brought closer. The hypothesis "life on the edge of chaos" using deterministic chaos has been radically deepened developed in recent years by the discovery of half-chaos. This new view requires a deeper interpretation within the range of the cell and the organism. It has impacts on understanding "chaos" in the term "genome chaos". This study intends to present such an interpretation on the basis of which such searches will be easier and closer to intuition. We interpret genome chaos as deterministic chaos in a large module of half-chaotic network modeling the cell. We observed such chaotic modules in simulations of evolution controlled by weaker variant of natural selection. We also discuss differences between free and somatic cells in modeling their disturbance using half-chaotic networks.

Keywords: Kauffman network; biology; cancer; chaos; complex network; deterministic chaos; genome chaos; half-chaos; multicellular organism.

Grants and funding

The research received no funding. George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures contributed to the payment of the publication fee.