Information Cascade in Cell Biology
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2016/10/cells-sense-respond-outside-world.html
Information cascade occurs when an entity takes information from others by observing their actions and decisions and making the same decision even when the decision contradicts with the entity’s own private signal. This occurs in people’s daily lives in making social or economic decisions. According to a study published in the journal “Cell Systems “, information cascade also occurs in cells of human body. A cell, or a group of cells constantly make decisions regarding when to divide, where they should migrate, when to terminate their lives. In doing so, these cells receive signals from other cells in its environment before making these decisions. These environmental cues range widely from information regarding increased levels of certain hormones to the level of mating pheromone in a cell’s surroundings. Researchers of this study discovered a mechanism called “push-pull control”, which is a way of constructing a signaling pathway, using cells that demonstrate information cascade.
This study closely relates to the concept of two state model discussed throughout the lectures. Cells receive signals from its surrounding, which can be whether a protein is in an “active” form or an “inactive” form. This is similar to the high and low signals used in our two state model. While the cells receive its own private signals from neurons, they also depend on decisions made by other cells. The specific process of transferring these signals have not yet been discovered to full extent. However, researchers can use this information to find out how cell migration works and apply this study in making pharmaceutical products. This mechanism that they discovered, the push-pull control, shows how certain kinds of cancer drug work in human bodies.
interesting!