scholarly journals Beyond Neurons: Long Distance Communication in Development and Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick McMillen ◽  
Madeleine J. Oudin ◽  
Michael Levin ◽  
Samantha L. Payne
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Electric Fields ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Electrical Coupling ◽  
The Body ◽  
Molecular Signaling ◽  
Tunneling Nanotubes ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Distance Communication

Cellular communication is important in all aspects of tissue and organism functioning, from the level of single cells, two discreet populations, and distant tissues of the body. Long distance communication networks integrate individual cells into tissues to maintain a complex organism during development, but when communication between cells goes awry, disease states such as cancer emerge. Herein we discuss the growing body of evidence suggesting that communication methods known to be employed by neurons, also exist in other cell types. We identify three major areas of long-distance communication: bioelectric signaling, tunneling nanotubes (TNTs), and macrophage modulation of networks, and draw comparisons about how these systems operate in the context of development and cancer. Bioelectric signaling occurs between cells through exchange of ions and tissue-level electric fields, leading to changes in biochemical gradients and molecular signaling pathways to control normal development and tumor growth and invasion in cancer. TNTs transport key morphogens and other cargo long distances, mediating electrical coupling, tissue patterning, and malignancy of cancer cells. Lastly macrophages maintain long distance signaling networks through trafficking of vesicles during development, providing communication relays and priming favorable microenvironments for cancer metastasis. By drawing comparisons between non-neural long distance signaling in the context of development and cancer we aim to encourage crosstalk between the two fields to cultivate new hypotheses and potential therapeutic strategies.

Smoke signalling resistance: Aboriginal use of long-distance communication during Australia’s frontier wars

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Ray Kerkhove
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
Signalling Systems

AbstractThis essay reconstructs defensive/offensive mechanisms of Aboriginal communication networks and presents historical examples of their application as a means of resistance during Australia’s frontier wars. The principal focus is on smoke-signalling systems, especially in Queensland.

scholarly journals The study of molecular signals and the immune system behavior in cancer cell metastasis: A literature review

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
A.M. TATENOV ◽  
T. MYRZAKUL ◽  
T. GONCHAROVA ◽  
B. BUGUBAEV ◽  
N. SHYNYKULOVA
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Quantum Electrodynamics ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
The Body ◽  
Chemical Components ◽  
Molecular Signaling ◽  
Cell Metastasis ◽  
Electromagnetic Signals ◽  
Molecular Signals

Relevance: This study’s relevance is due to the lack among academia of a holistic picture of the processes that occur in the body in cancer cell metastasis. Particularly, a lot is unclear about the physical mechanism of molecular signaling and organizing immune responses, as well as registering the frequency and amplitude of ultra-weak electromagnetic signals with the development of a tumor process in the body. The purpose of this study was to review the literature sources regarding the physicochemical mechanisms of processes that occur in the body in cancer cell metastasis. Results: The analysis of the selected sources gives reason to believe that a medico-biological point of view is not enough to explain tumor metastasis. The mentioned sources highlight the issues related to the physical and chemical components of this process. The publications state the facts of the reorganization of cancer cells at receiving molecular signals. Hence, the authors do not explain what structures form molecular signals of a strictly defined frequency and how physically the cancer cell receives these signals and implements them into practical responses. It is evident that these molecular signals are ultra-weak electromagnetic waves. Methods of quantification of some parameters of the metastasis process are proposed, as well as the ways to register ultra-weak electromagnetic signals. Conclusion: Data on the physicochemical mechanisms of various stages of metastasis of malignant tumors included in this review complements the picture of the process of cancer metastasis in the human body and defines a range of issues that require interdisciplinary research involving both physicians and biologists, and specialists in quantum physics, electronics, and chemistry. Only quantum electrodynamics can explain the mechanism of a cell cytoskeleton transformation (from a healthy to a tumor cell) under the influence of weak electromagnetic signals. The authors reveal priority directions for an interdisciplinary study of bioenergetic processes that occur in the body in cancer cell metastasis.

Communication and Empire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Whittow
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Communication Work ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
Western Half

The Roman world in the second century was remarkably homogeneous, and the ties that bound it together remarkably thick and apparently strong. But what happened when the western half went its own way, when imperial territories were limited to bits of Asia Minor and the Balkans, when the construction of new monumental buildings had slowed to a trickle or stopped entirely, when the epigraphic habit had died? How did political communication work in the Roman empire of the Middle Ages that we know as Byzantium? The answer requires conjuring up a picture of people on the move; of soldiers, priests, students, pilgrims, appellants, merchants, tax collectors, administrators, painters, and builders. And it requires thinking about the messages they received and passed on. Placing the Byzantine experience in comparative perspective to Song China, this chapter surveys the evidence of Byzantine political communication to investigate both the means of transmitting news and orders as well as the underlying networks of shared discourse and identity. It shows that the survival of the Byzantine state depended largely on its ability to create an imagined community as the nation-state of the Romans. The decline of Byzantium and the rise of Muslim identities in its former territories can thus be linked to a failure to maintain effective long-distance communication networks that projected a ‘Roman’ narrative across the entirety of the empire.

scholarly journals Long-distance relationships: do membrane nanotubes regulate cell–cell communication and disease progression?

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1095-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan M. Sherer
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Signaling ◽  
Electrical Coupling ◽  
Cell Communication ◽  
Tunneling Nanotubes ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Membrane Nanotubes ◽  
Pathogenic Agents ◽  
Key Questions ◽  
Cell Cell

Metazoan cells rapidly exchange signals at tight cell–cell interfaces, including synapses and gap junctions. Advances in imaging recently exposed a third mode of intercellular cross-talk mediated by thin, actin-containing membrane extensions broadly known as “membrane” or “tunneling” nanotubes. An explosion of research suggests diverse functions for nanotubular superhighways, including cell–cell electrical coupling, calcium signaling, small-molecule exchange, and, remarkably, the transfer of bulky cargoes, including organelles or pathogenic agents. Despite great enthusiasm for all things nanotubular and their potential roles in cell signaling and pathogenesis, key questions remain regarding the mechanisms by which these structures regulate directional cell–cell exchange; how these linkages are formed and between which cells and, critically, whether nanotubes are as prevalent in vivo as they appear to be in the incubator.

scholarly journals A Long-Distance Communication Architecture for Medical Devices Based on LoRaWAN Protocol

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 940
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Cristina Gaitan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Medical Devices ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Wide Area Network ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Communication Architecture ◽  
Low Energy Consumption ◽  
Distance Communication

Recent market studies show that the market for remote monitoring devices of different medical parameters will grow exponentially. Globally, more than 4 million individuals will be monitored remotely from the perspective of different health parameters by 2023. Of particular importance is the way of remote transmission of the information acquired from the medical sensors. At this time, there are several methods such as Bluetooth, WI-FI, or other wireless communication interfaces. Recently, the communication based on LoRa (Long Range) technology has had an explosive development that allows the transmission of information over long distances with low energy consumption. The implementation of the IoT (Internet of Things) applications using LoRa devices based on open Long Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol for long distances with low energy consumption can also be used in the medical field. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed and developed a long-distance communication architecture for medical devices based on the LoRaWAN protocol that allows data communications over a distance of more than 10 km.

scholarly journals Millimeter (MM) wave and microwave frequency radiation produce deeply penetrating effects: the biology and the physics

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Pall
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Electric Fields ◽  
Cardiac Activity ◽  
Maximum Level ◽  
Voltage Sensor ◽  
The Body ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Mm Waves

Abstract Millimeter wave (MM-wave) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are predicted to not produce penetrating effects in the body. The electric but not magnetic part of MM-EMFs are almost completely absorbed within the outer 1 mm of the body. Rodents are reported to have penetrating MM-wave impacts on the brain, the myocardium, liver, kidney and bone marrow. MM-waves produce electromagnetic sensitivity-like changes in rodent, frog and skate tissues. In humans, MM-waves have penetrating effects including impacts on the brain, producing EEG changes and other neurological/neuropsychiatric changes, increases in apparent electromagnetic hypersensitivity and produce changes on ulcers and cardiac activity. This review focuses on several issues required to understand penetrating effects of MM-waves and microwaves: 1. Electronically generated EMFs are coherent, producing much higher electrical and magnetic forces then do natural incoherent EMFs. 2. The fixed relationship between electrical and magnetic fields found in EMFs in a vacuum or highly permeable medium such as air, predicted by Maxwell’s equations, breaks down in other materials. Specifically, MM-wave electrical fields are almost completely absorbed in the outer 1 mm of the body due to the high dielectric constant of biological aqueous phases. However, the magnetic fields are very highly penetrating. 3. Time-varying magnetic fields have central roles in producing highly penetrating effects. The primary mechanism of EMF action is voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) activation with the EMFs acting via their forces on the voltage sensor, rather than by depolarization of the plasma membrane. Two distinct mechanisms, an indirect and a direct mechanism, are consistent with and predicted by the physics, to explain penetrating MM-wave VGCC activation via the voltage sensor. Time-varying coherent magnetic fields, as predicted by the Maxwell–Faraday version of Faraday’s law of induction, can put forces on ions dissolved in aqueous phases deep within the body, regenerating coherent electric fields which activate the VGCC voltage sensor. In addition, time-varying magnetic fields can directly put forces on the 20 charges in the VGCC voltage sensor. There are three very important findings here which are rarely recognized in the EMF scientific literature: coherence of electronically generated EMFs; the key role of time-varying magnetic fields in generating highly penetrating effects; the key role of both modulating and pure EMF pulses in greatly increasing very short term high level time-variation of magnetic and electric fields. It is probable that genuine safety guidelines must keep nanosecond timescale-variation of coherent electric and magnetic fields below some maximum level in order to produce genuine safety. These findings have important implications with regard to 5G radiation.

scholarly journals Tissue-specific tregs in cancer metastasis: opportunities for precision immunotherapy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Huppert ◽  
Michael D. Green ◽  
Luke Kim ◽  
Christine Chow ◽  
Yan Leyfman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Immunotherapy ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Metastatic Cancer ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Therapy Resistance ◽  
Term Treatment ◽  
The Body ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Tissue Repair And Regeneration ◽  
Long Term Treatment

AbstractDecades of advancements in immuno-oncology have enabled the development of current immunotherapies, which provide long-term treatment responses in certain metastatic cancer patients. However, cures remain infrequent, and most patients ultimately succumb to treatment-refractory metastatic disease. Recent insights suggest that tumors at certain organ sites exhibit distinctive response patterns to immunotherapy and can even reduce antitumor immunity within anatomically distant tumors, suggesting the activation of tissue-specific immune tolerogenic mechanisms in some cases of therapy resistance. Specialized immune cells known as regulatory T cells (Tregs) are present within all tissues in the body and coordinate the suppression of excessive immune activation to curb autoimmunity and maintain immune homeostasis. Despite the high volume of research on Tregs, the findings have failed to reconcile tissue-specific Treg functions in organs, such as tolerance, tissue repair, and regeneration, with their suppression of local and systemic tumor immunity in the context of immunotherapy resistance. To improve the understanding of how the tissue-specific functions of Tregs impact cancer immunotherapy, we review the specialized role of Tregs in clinically common and challenging organ sites of cancer metastasis, highlight research that describes Treg impacts on tissue-specific and systemic immune regulation in the context of immunotherapy, and summarize ongoing work reporting clinically feasible strategies that combine the specific targeting of Tregs with systemic cancer immunotherapy. Improved knowledge of Tregs in the framework of their tissue-specific biology and clinical sites of organ metastasis will enable more precise targeting of immunotherapy and have profound implications for treating patients with metastatic cancer.

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