AI Article Synopsis
- Scientists are exploring how immune cells can fight cancer and why they don't always succeed, using ideas from ecology about predators and prey.
- Understanding the "tumour microenvironment," where cancer cells live, is super important for improving treatments.
- They want to find new ways to combine therapies and target cancer better by using what they’ve learned about how immune cells behave like predators against cancer cells.
Article Abstract
With the burgeoning use of immune-based treatments for cancer, never has there been a greater need to understand the tumour microenvironment within which immune cells function and how it can be perturbed to inhibit tumour growth. Yet, current challenges in identifying optimal combinations of immunotherapies and engineering new cell-based therapies highlight the limitations of conventional paradigms for the study of the tumour microenvironment. Ecology has a rich history of studying predator-prey dynamics to discern factors that drive prey to extinction. Here, we describe the basic tenets of predator-prey theory as applied to 'predation' by immune cells and the 'extinction' of cancer cells. Our synthesis reveals fundamental mechanisms by which antitumour immunity might fail in sometimes counterintuitive ways and provides a fresh yet evidence-based framework to better understand and therapeutically target the immune-cancer interface.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00719-y | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Control of Overfitting with Physics.
Entropy (Basel)
December 2024
Steklov Mathematical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Gubkina St. 8, Moscow 119991, Russia.
While there are many works on the applications of machine learning, not so many of them are trying to understand the theoretical justifications to explain their efficiency. In this work, overfitting control (or generalization property) in machine learning is explained using analogies from physics and biology. For stochastic gradient Langevin dynamics, we show that the Eyring formula of kinetic theory allows to control overfitting in the algorithmic stability approach-when wide minima of the risk function with low free energy correspond to low overfitting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance of pesticide and additional food in pest-predator system: a theoretical study.
J Biol Dyn
December 2025
Department of Life Sciences, Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence, Kalaburagi, India.
Integrated pest management (IPM) combines chemical and biological control to maintain pest populations below economic thresholds. The impact of providing additional food for predators on pest-predator dynamics, along- side pesticide use, in the IPM context remains unstudied. To address this issue, in this work a theoretical model was developed using differential equations, assuming Holling type II functional response for the predator, with additional food sources included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbstractInducible defenses can affect the persistence, structure, and stability of consumer-resource systems. Theory shows that these effects depend on characteristics of the inducible defense, including timing, costs, efficacy, and sensitivity to consumer density. However, the expression and costs of inducible defenses often vary among life stages, which has not been captured in previous unstructured models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLearning to hunt: A data-driven stochastic feedback control model of predator-prey interactions.
J Theor Biol
February 2025
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, 94 Brett Road, Piscataway, 08854, NJ, USA. Electronic address:
The dynamics unfolding during predator-prey interactions encapsulate a critical aspect of the natural world, dictating the survival and evolutionary trajectories of animal species. Underlying these complex dynamics, sensory-motor control strategies orchestrate the locomotory gates essential to guarantee survival or predation. While analytical models have been instrumental in understanding predator-prey interactions, dissecting sensory-motor control strategies remains a great challenge due to the adaptive and stochastic nature of animal behavior and the strong coupling of predator-prey interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe global diet diversity spectrum in avian apex predators.
Proc Biol Sci
December 2024
Living Earth Collaborative, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
Article Synopsis
- Some predators have either narrow or broad diets, and the reasons for this variation are still unclear.
- Researchers found a strong connection between the diversity of prey species in raptors' diets and the distribution of those prey, suggesting that raptors' diets tend to be more evenly distributed than expected.
- The positioning of raptors on this diet diversity spectrum is influenced by their evolutionary history, acceptable prey types, and their role in connecting different habitats, indicating their importance in stabilizing food webs and maintaining biodiversity.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!