Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2023 Dec;42(4):1201-1218. doi: 10.1007/s10555-023-10123-0. Epub 2023 Aug 4.
Some relevant emerging properties of intelligent systems are "adaptation to a changing environment," "reaction to unexpected situations," "capacity of problem solving," and "ability to communicate." Single cells have remarkable abilities to adapt, make adequate context-dependent decision, take constructive actions, and communicate, thus theoretically meeting all the above-mentioned requirements. From a biological point of view, cancer can be viewed as an invasive species, composed of cells that move from primary to distant sites, being continuously exposed to changes in the environmental conditions. Blood represents the first hostile habitat that a cancer cell encounters once detached from the primary site, so that cancer cells must rapidly carry out multiple adaptation strategies to survive. The aim of this review was to deepen the adaptation mechanisms of cancer cells in the blood microenvironment, particularly referring to four adaptation strategies typical of animal species (phenotypic adaptation, metabolic adaptation, niche adaptation, and collective adaptation), which together define the broad concept of biological intelligence. We provided evidence that the required adaptations (either structural, metabolic, and related to metastatic niche formation) and "social" behavior are useful principles allowing putting into a coherent frame many features of circulating cancer cells. This interpretative frame is described by the comparison with analog behavioral traits typical of various animal models.
智能系统的一些相关新兴特性包括“适应不断变化的环境”、“对意外情况的反应”、“解决问题的能力”和“沟通能力”。单细胞具有显著的适应能力、做出适当的情境相关决策、采取建设性行动和进行交流的能力，因此从理论上讲，满足了上述所有要求。从生物学的角度来看，癌症可以被视为一种入侵物种，由从原发部位转移到远处部位的细胞组成，这些细胞不断暴露于环境条件的变化中。血液是癌症细胞一旦脱离原发部位就会遇到的第一个敌对栖息地，因此癌症细胞必须迅速采取多种适应策略才能存活。本综述的目的是深入探讨癌细胞在血液微环境中的适应机制，特别是参考动物物种的四种适应策略（表型适应、代谢适应、生态位适应和群体适应），这些策略共同定义了广泛的生物智能概念。我们提供的证据表明，所需的适应（无论是结构上的、代谢上的，还是与转移生态位形成有关的）和“社会”行为是有用的原则，允许将许多循环癌细胞的特征纳入一个连贯的框架中。这种解释框架通过与各种动物模型的典型类似行为特征进行比较来描述。
