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Nunn AV, Guy GW, Bell JD. Bioelectric Fields at the Beginnings of Life. Bioelectricity 2022; 4:237-247. [PMID: 36636557 PMCID: PMC9810354 DOI: 10.1089/bioe.2022.0012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The consensus on the origins of life is that it involved organization of prebiotic chemicals according to the underlying principles of thermodynamics to dissipate energy derived from photochemical and/or geochemical sources. Leading theories tend to be chemistry-centric, revolving around either metabolism or information-containing polymers first. However, experimental data also suggest that bioelectricity and quantum effects play an important role in biology, which might suggest that a further factor is required to explain how life began. Intriguingly, in the early part of 20th century, the concept of the "morphogenetic field" was proposed by Gurwitsch to explain how the shape of an organism was determined, while a role for quantum mechanics in biology was suggested by Bohr and Schrödinger, among others. This raises the question as to the potential of these phenomena, especially bioelectric fields, to have been involved in the origin of life. It points to the possibility that as bioelectricity is universally prevalent in biological systems today, it represents a more complex echo of an electromagnetic skeleton which helped shape life into being. It could be argued that as a flow of ions creates an electric field, this could have been pivotal in the formation of an energy dissipating structure, for instance, in deep sea thermal vents. Moreover, a field theory might also hint at the potential involvement of nontrivial quantum effects in life. Not only might this perspective help indicate the origins of morphogenetic fields, but also perhaps suggest where life may have started, and whether metabolism or information came first. It might also help to provide an insight into aging, cancer, consciousness, and, perhaps, how we might identify life beyond our planet. In short, when thinking about life, not only do we have to consider the accepted chemistry, but also the fields that must also shape it. In effect, to fully understand life, as well as the yin of accepted particle-based chemistry, there is a yang of field-based interaction and an ethereal skeleton.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alistair V.W. Nunn
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom.,Address correspondence to: Alistair V.W. Nunn, PhD, Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London W1W 6UW, United Kingdom
| | | | - Jimmy D. Bell
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
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Bartlett S, Louapre D. Provenance of life: Chemical autonomous agents surviving through associative learning. Phys Rev E 2022; 106:034401. [PMID: 36266823 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.106.034401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
We present a benchmark study of autonomous, chemical agents exhibiting associative learning of an environmental feature. Associative learning systems have been widely studied in cognitive science and artificial intelligence but are most commonly implemented in highly complex or carefully engineered systems, such as animal brains, artificial neural networks, DNA computing systems, and gene regulatory networks, among others. The ability to encode environmental information and use it to make simple predictions is a benchmark of biological resilience and underpins a plethora of adaptive responses in the living hierarchy, spanning prey animal species anticipating the arrival of predators to epigenetic systems in microorganisms learning environmental correlations. Given the ubiquitous and essential presence of learning behaviors in the biosphere, we aimed to explore whether simple, nonliving dissipative structures could also exhibit associative learning. Inspired by previous modeling of associative learning in chemical networks, we simulated simple systems composed of long- and short-term memory chemical species that could encode the presence or absence of temporal correlations between two external species. The ability to learn this association was implemented in Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion spots, emergent chemical patterns that exhibit self-replication and homeostasis. With the novel ability of associative learning, we demonstrate that simple chemical patterns can exhibit a broad repertoire of lifelike behavior, paving the way for in vitro studies of autonomous chemical learning systems, with potential relevance to artificial life, origins of life, and systems chemistry. The experimental realization of these learning behaviors in protocell or coacervate systems could advance a new research direction in astrobiology, since our system significantly reduces the lower bound on the required complexity for autonomous chemical learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart Bartlett
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA and Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
| | - David Louapre
- Ubisoft Entertainment, 94160 Saint-Mandé, France and Science Étonnante, 75014 Paris, France†
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Unified representation of Life's basic properties by a 3-species Stochastic Cubic Autocatalytic Reaction-Diffusion system of equations. Phys Life Rev 2022; 41:64-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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Skene KR. In pursuit of the framework behind the biosphere: S-curves, self-assembly and the genetic entropy paradox. Biosystems 2020; 190:104101. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2019] [Revised: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Nunn AVW, Guy GW, Botchway SW, Bell JD. From sunscreens to medicines: Can a dissipation hypothesis explain the beneficial aspects of many plant compounds? Phytother Res 2020; 34:1868-1888. [PMID: 32166791 PMCID: PMC7496984 DOI: 10.1002/ptr.6654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2019] [Revised: 01/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Medicine has utilised plant‐based treatments for millennia, but precisely how they work is unclear. One approach is to use a thermodynamic viewpoint that life arose by dissipating geothermal and/or solar potential. Hence, the ability to dissipate energy to maintain homeostasis is a fundamental principle in all life, which can be viewed as an accretion system where layers of complexity have built upon core abiotic molecules. Many of these compounds are chromophoric and are now involved in multiple pathways. Plants have further evolved a plethora of chromophoric compounds that can not only act as sunscreens and redox modifiers, but also have now become integrated into a generalised stress adaptive system. This could be an extension of the dissipative process. In animals, many of these compounds are hormetic, modulating mitochondria and calcium signalling. They can also display anti‐pathogen effects. They could therefore modulate bioenergetics across all life due to the conserved electron transport chain and proton gradient. In this review paper, we focus on well‐described medicinal compounds, such as salicylic acid and cannabidiol and suggest, at least in animals, their activity reflects their evolved function in plants in relation to stress adaptation, which itself evolved to maintain dissipative homeostasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alistair V W Nunn
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK
| | | | - Stanley W Botchway
- STFC, UKRI & Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
| | - Jimmy D Bell
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK
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Michel D. Conformational selection or induced fit? New insights from old principles. Biochimie 2016; 128-129:48-54. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biochi.2016.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2016] [Accepted: 06/21/2016] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
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Abstract
A sufficiently complex set of molecules, if subject to perturbation, will self-organize and show emergent behaviour. If such a system can take on information it will become subject to natural selection. This could explain how self-replicating molecules evolved into life and how intelligence arose. A pivotal step in this evolutionary process was of course the emergence of the eukaryote and the advent of the mitochondrion, which both enhanced energy production per cell and increased the ability to process, store and utilize information. Recent research suggest that from its inception life embraced quantum effects such as 'tunnelling' and 'coherence' while competition and stressful conditions provided a constant driver for natural selection. We believe that the biphasic adaptive response to stress described by hormesis-a process that captures information to enable adaptability, is central to this whole process. Critically, hormesis could improve mitochondrial quantum efficiency, improving the ATP/ROS ratio, whereas inflammation, which is tightly associated with the aging process, might do the opposite. This all suggests that to achieve optimal health and healthy aging, one has to sufficiently stress the system to ensure peak mitochondrial function, which itself could reflect selection of optimum efficiency at the quantum level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alistair V W Nunn
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London W1W 6UW, U.K.
| | - Geoffrey W Guy
- GW Pharmaceuticals, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, U.K
| | - Jimmy D Bell
- Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London W1W 6UW, U.K
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Chisholm RH, Lorenzi T, Clairambault J. Cell population heterogeneity and evolution towards drug resistance in cancer: Biological and mathematical assessment, theoretical treatment optimisation. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 2016; 1860:2627-45. [PMID: 27339473 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2016.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2016] [Revised: 05/25/2016] [Accepted: 06/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Drug-induced drug resistance in cancer has been attributed to diverse biological mechanisms at the individual cell or cell population scale, relying on stochastically or epigenetically varying expression of phenotypes at the single cell level, and on the adaptability of tumours at the cell population level. SCOPE OF REVIEW We focus on intra-tumour heterogeneity, namely between-cell variability within cancer cell populations, to account for drug resistance. To shed light on such heterogeneity, we review evolutionary mechanisms that encompass the great evolution that has designed multicellular organisms, as well as smaller windows of evolution on the time scale of human disease. We also present mathematical models used to predict drug resistance in cancer and optimal control methods that can circumvent it in combined therapeutic strategies. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS Plasticity in cancer cells, i.e., partial reversal to a stem-like status in individual cells and resulting adaptability of cancer cell populations, may be viewed as backward evolution making cancer cell populations resistant to drug insult. This reversible plasticity is captured by mathematical models that incorporate between-cell heterogeneity through continuous phenotypic variables. Such models have the benefit of being compatible with optimal control methods for the design of optimised therapeutic protocols involving combinations of cytotoxic and cytostatic treatments with epigenetic drugs and immunotherapies. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE Gathering knowledge from cancer and evolutionary biology with physiologically based mathematical models of cell population dynamics should provide oncologists with a rationale to design optimised therapeutic strategies to circumvent drug resistance, that still remains a major pitfall of cancer therapeutics. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "System Genetics" Guest Editor: Dr. Yudong Cai and Dr. Tao Huang.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca H Chisholm
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Tommaso Lorenzi
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, KY16 9SS, St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom. http://www.tommasolorenzi.com
| | - Jean Clairambault
- INRIA Paris, MAMBA team, 2, rue Simone Iff, CS 42112, 75589 Paris Cedex 12, France; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 6, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, Boîte courrier 187, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
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Russo A, Bianchi M, Sartori M, Parrilli A, Panseri S, Ortolani A, Sandri M, Boi M, Salter DM, Maltarello MC, Giavaresi G, Fini M, Dediu V, Tampieri A, Marcacci M. Magnetic forces and magnetized biomaterials provide dynamic flux information during bone regeneration. JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE. MATERIALS IN MEDICINE 2016; 27:51. [PMID: 26758898 DOI: 10.1007/s10856-015-5659-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2015] [Accepted: 12/28/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
The fascinating prospect to direct tissue regeneration by magnetic activation has been recently explored. In this study we investigate the possibility to boost bone regeneration in an experimental defect in rabbit femoral condyle by combining static magnetic fields and magnetic biomaterials. NdFeB permanent magnets are implanted close to biomimetic collagen/hydroxyapatite resorbable scaffolds magnetized according to two different protocols . Permanent magnet only or non-magnetic scaffolds are used as controls. Bone tissue regeneration is evaluated at 12 weeks from surgery from a histological, histomorphometric and biomechanical point of view. The reorganization of the magnetized collagen fibers under the effect of the static magnetic field generated by the permanent magnet produces a highly-peculiar bone pattern, with highly-interconnected trabeculae orthogonally oriented with respect to the magnetic field lines. In contrast, only partial defect healing is achieved within the control groups. We ascribe the peculiar bone regeneration to the transfer of micro-environmental information, mediated by collagen fibrils magnetized by magnetic nanoparticles, under the effect of the static magnetic field. These results open new perspectives on the possibility to improve implant fixation and control the morphology and maturity of regenerated bone providing "in site" forces by synergically combining static magnetic fields and biomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Russo
- Laboratorio di NanoBiotechnologie (NABI), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy.
- Laboratorio di Biomeccanica ed Innovazione Tecnologica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy.
| | - Michele Bianchi
- Laboratorio di NanoBiotechnologie (NABI), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Maria Sartori
- Laboratorio di Biocompatibilità Innovazioni Tecnologiche e Terapie Avanzate (BITTA), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Annapaola Parrilli
- Laboratorio di Biocompatibilità Innovazioni Tecnologiche e Terapie Avanzate (BITTA), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Silvia Panseri
- Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali Ceramici (ISTEC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Granarolo 64, 48018, Faenza, Italy
| | - Alessandro Ortolani
- Laboratorio di Biomeccanica ed Innovazione Tecnologica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Monica Sandri
- Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali Ceramici (ISTEC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Granarolo 64, 48018, Faenza, Italy
| | - Marco Boi
- Laboratorio di NanoBiotechnologie (NABI), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Donald M Salter
- Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Maria Cristina Maltarello
- Laboratorio di Biologia Cellulare Muscoloscheletrica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Gianluca Giavaresi
- Laboratorio di Biocompatibilità Innovazioni Tecnologiche e Terapie Avanzate (BITTA), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
- Laboratorio Studi Preclinici e Chirurgici, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Milena Fini
- Laboratorio di Biocompatibilità Innovazioni Tecnologiche e Terapie Avanzate (BITTA), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
- Laboratorio Studi Preclinici e Chirurgici, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
| | - Valentin Dediu
- Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati (ISMN), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy
| | - Anna Tampieri
- Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali Ceramici (ISTEC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Granarolo 64, 48018, Faenza, Italy
| | - Maurilio Marcacci
- Laboratorio di NanoBiotechnologie (NABI), Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
- Laboratorio di Biomeccanica ed Innovazione Tecnologica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, via di Barbiano 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy
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Michel D, Boutin B, Ruelle P. The accuracy of biochemical interactions is ensured by endothermic stepwise kinetics. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2016; 121:35-44. [PMID: 26867859 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2016.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2016] [Accepted: 02/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The discerning behavior of living systems relies on accurate interactions selected from the lot of molecular collisions occurring in the cell. To ensure the reliability of interactions, binding partners are classically envisioned as finely preadapted molecules, selected on the basis of their affinity in one-step associations. But the counterselection of inappropriate interactions can in fact be much more efficiently obtained through difficult multi-step adjustment, whose final high energy state is locked by a fluctuation ratchet. The progressive addition of molecular bonds during stereo-adjustment can be modeled as a predominantly backward random walk whose first arrival is frozen by a micro-irreversible transition. A new criterion of ligand specificity is presented, that is based on the ratio rejection/incorporation. In addition to its role in the selectivity of interactions, this generic recipe can underlie other important biological phenomena such as the regular synthesis at low level of supramolecular complexes, monostable kinetic bimodality, substrate concentration thresholds or the preparation of rapidly depolymerizable structures with stored energy, like microtubules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denis Michel
- Universite de Rennes1, IRSET, Campus Santé de Villejean, 35000 Rennes, France.
| | - Benjamin Boutin
- Universite de Rennes1, Institut de Recherche Mathématiques de Rennes (IRMAR), Campus de Beaulieu Bat. 22/23, 35042, Rennes, France
| | - Philippe Ruelle
- Université catholique de Louvain - UCL, Institut de Recherche en Mathématique et Physique, IRMP, Chemin du Cyclotron, 2, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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van Hateren JH. A new criterion for demarcating life from non-life. ORIGINS LIFE EVOL B 2013; 43:491-500. [PMID: 24402034 DOI: 10.1007/s11084-013-9352-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2013] [Accepted: 12/13/2013] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Criteria for demarcating life from non-life are important for deciding whether new candidate systems, either discovered extraterrestrially or constructed in the laboratory, are genuinely alive or not. They are also important for understanding the origin of life and its evolution. Current criteria are either too restrictive or too extensive. The new criterion proposed here poses that a system is living when it is capable of utilizing active causation, at evolutionary or behavioural timescales. Active causation is produced when the organism uses an estimate of its own Darwinian fitness to modulate the variance of stochasticity that drives hereditary or behavioural changes. The changes are subsequently fed back to the fitness estimate and used in the next cycle of a feedback loop. The ability to use a self-estimated fitness in this way is an evolved property of the organism, and the way in which fitness is estimated is therefore controlled and stabilized by Darwinian evolution. The hereditary and behavioural trajectories resulting from this mechanism combine predictability with unpredictability, and the mechanism produces a form of self-directed agency in living organisms that is absent from non-living systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- J H van Hateren
- Johann Bernouilli Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 407, 9700 AK, Groningen, The Netherlands,
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Nicol-Benoit F, le Goff P, Michel D. Drawing a Waddington landscape to capture dynamic epigenetics. Biol Cell 2013; 105:576-84. [PMID: 24111561 DOI: 10.1111/boc.201300029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2013] [Accepted: 09/10/2013] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Epigenetics is most often reduced to chromatin marking in the current literature, whereas this notion was initially defined in a more general context. This restricted view ignores that epigenetic memories are in fact more robustly ensured in living systems by steady-state mechanisms with permanent molecule renewal. This misconception is likely to result from misleading intuitions and insufficient dialogues between traditional and quantitative biologists. To demystify dynamic epigenetics, its most famous image, a Waddington landscape and its attractors, are explicitly drawn. The simple example provided, is sufficient to highlight the main requirements and characteristics of dynamic gene networks, underlying cellular differentiation, de-differentiation and trans-differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Floriane Nicol-Benoit
- Université de Rennes 1 IRSET U1085 Transcription, Environment and Cancer, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes Cedex, 35042, France
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