Multiscale modeling of glioma pseudopalisades: contributions from the tumor microenvironment

Modelling the Tumour Microenvironment, but What Exactly Do We Mean by "Model"?

The Oxford English Dictionary includes 17 definitions for the word "model" as a noun and another 11 as a verb. Therefore, context is necessary to understand the meaning of the word model. For instance, "model railways" refer to replicas of railways and trains at a smaller scale and a "model student" refers to an exemplary individual. In some cases, a specific context, like cancer research, may not be sufficient to provide one specific meaning for model. Even if the context is narrowed, specifically, to research related to the tumour microenvironment, "model" can be understood in a wide variety of ways, from an animal model to a mathematical expression. This paper presents a review of different "models" of the tumour microenvironment, as grouped by different definitions of the word into four categories: model organisms, in vitro models, mathematical models and computational models. Then, the frequencies of different meanings of the word "model" related to the tumour microenvironment are measured from numbers of entries in the MEDLINE database of the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. The frequencies of the main components of the microenvironment and the organ-related cancers modelled are also assessed quantitatively with specific keywords. Whilst animal models, particularly xenografts and mouse models, are the most commonly used "models", the number of these entries has been slowly decreasing. Mathematical models, as well as prognostic and risk models, follow in frequency, and these have been growing in use.

Data driven modeling of pseudopalisade pattern formation

Pseudopalisading is an interesting phenomenon where cancer cells arrange themselves to form a dense garland-like pattern. Unlike the palisade structure, a similar type of pattern first observed in schwannomas by pathologist J.J. Verocay (Wippold et al. in AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 27(10):2037-2041, 2006), pseudopalisades are less organized and associated with a necrotic region at their core. These structures are mainly found in glioblastoma (GBM), a grade IV brain tumor, and provide a way to assess the aggressiveness of the tumor. Identification of the exact bio-mechanism responsible for the formation of pseudopalisades is a difficult task, mainly because pseudopalisades seem to be a consequence of complex nonlinear dynamics within the tumor. In this paper we propose a data-driven methodology to gain insight into the formation of different types of pseudopalisade structures. To this end, we start from a state of the art macroscopic model for the dynamics of GBM, that is coupled with the dynamics of extracellular pH, and formulate a terminal value optimal control problem. Thus, given a specific, observed pseudopalisade pattern, we determine the evolution of parameters (bio-mechanisms) that are responsible for its emergence. Random histological images exhibiting pseudopalisade-like structures are chosen to serve as target pattern. Having identified the optimal model parameters that generate the specified target pattern, we then formulate two different types of pattern counteracting ansatzes in order to determine possible ways to impair or obstruct the process of pseudopalisade formation. This provides the basis for designing active or live control of malignant GBM. Furthermore, we also provide a simple, yet insightful, mechanism to synthesize new pseudopalisade patterns by linearly combining the optimal model parameters responsible for generating different known target patterns. This particularly provides a hint that complex pseudopalisade patterns could be synthesized by a linear combination of parameters responsible for generating simple patterns. Going even further, we ask ourselves if complex therapy approaches can be conceived, such that some linear combination thereof is able to reverse or disrupt simple pseudopalisade patterns; this is investigated with the help of numerical simulations.

Anomalous Stochastic Transport of Particles with Self-Reinforcement and Mittag–Leffler Distributed Rest Times

We introduce a persistent random walk model for the stochastic transport of particles involving self-reinforcement and a rest state with Mittag–Leffler distributed residence times. The model involves a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations with a non-local switching term described by the Riemann–Liouville derivative. From Monte Carlo simulations, we found that this model generates superdiffusion at intermediate times but reverts to subdiffusion in the long time asymptotic limit. To confirm this result, we derived the equation for the second moment and find that it is subdiffusive in the long time limit. Analyses of two simpler models are also included, which demonstrate the dominance of the Mittag–Leffler rest state leading to subdiffusion. The observation that transient superdiffusion occurs in an eventually subdiffusive system is a useful feature for applications in stochastic biological transport.