Reverse control of Boolean networks and its application to molecular regulatory networks of cancer

Abstract

A cell receives various stimuli from the environment and should respond properly to each stimulus. In systems view, the stimuli and the responses are inputs and outputs of the cellular system. I found that some mutations are not effective to the input-output matching, effects of other mutations can be removed by the ineffective mutations, and the broken input-output matching can be restored to the normal one. It suggests a possibility of the cancer reversion through the reverse control of the input-output matching of the cancer network. Here, I classified nodes of Boolean networks according to effects of their mutations to the input-output matching and the reversibility of the mutations. Different outcome of mutations in each node class was suggested by analyzing the survival of cancer patients. Therefore, I suggest a theoretical framework for the cancer reversion which can be utilized in other contexts.