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

¹ A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation Alikhanian Brothers St. 2, Yerevan 375036, Armenia
² Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica - Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
³ EcolePolytechnique, Laboratoire d' Informatique - 91128 Palaiseau France, EU
⁴ Service d'oncologie, Hôpital Raymond Poincaré - Garches, France, EU

^(a) saakian@yerphi.am

Received: 28 September 2012
Accepted: 27 November 2012

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.