The three different phases in the dynamics of chemical reaction networks and their relationship to cancer

Abstract

We investigate the catalytic reactions model used in cell modeling. The reaction kinetics is defined through the energies of different species of molecules following a random independent distribution. The related statistical physics model has three phases and these three phases emerge in the dynamics: fast dynamics phase, slow dynamic phase and ultra-slow dynamic phase. The phenomenon we found is rather general, and does not depend on the details of the model. We assume as a hypothesis that the transition among these phases (glassiness degrees) is related to cancer. The imbalance in the rate of processes between key aspects of the cell (gene regulation, protein-protein interaction, metabolical networks) creates a change in the fine tuning among these key aspects, affects the logics of the cell and initiates cancer. It is probable that cancer is a change of phase resulting from increased and deregulated metabolic reactions.