A platform called Cell Chat, developed by scientists at Irvine University in California, makes it possible to decipher and analyze the signals exchanged between human cells in different biological processes. A key to better understanding the formation of tissues and organs and how communication between cells can cause disease to appear.
- Human cells communicate with each other to organize our biological development
- A tool has been developed which makes it possible to decrypt these exchanges of messages
Will these works mark the history of biology as those of the British mathematician Alan Turing marked “great history”? Like the latter who had managed to “crack” the Enigma code in 1942, the machine used to encrypt Nazi messages during the Second World War, thus giving the Allies a decisive advantage, a team of biologists and mathematicians from Irvine University in California has developed a tool to decipher the language used by human cells to communicate with each other!
Thanks to this platform called Cell Chat presented in an article in the journal Nature Communications, we now know how to decode the information exchanged between human cells which lead to the formation of tissues and organs. Better still, this tool also opens up the possibility of analyzing the molecular processes that cause a wide range of diseases, including cancers and autoimmune diseases.
Listen to cells to find out what they are doing and predict their future actions
“To fully understand why cells do certain things and to predict their future actions, we need to be able to listen to what they are saying to each other, and mathematical and machine learning tools enable the translation of these messages,” says Qing. Nie, professor of mathematics and biology and co-author of this article.
And what do our cells tell each other to guide the biological functioning of our body? In fact, they exchange very simple messages like “do this” or “not do this”, a bit like computer codes. But what complicates the understanding of these exchanges is that they contain a “cipher” that allows cells to select the most important messages in the midst of a veritable bombardment of information through molecular words that reach them. simultaneously.
The tool developed automatically calibrates the strength of signals shared between cells by integrating the effect of signaling molecules that specify the “command” expressed by transforming it, for example, from “do this” to “do this now”.
Interpretation of cell language
“For each group of cells, the platform shows what meaningful signals are being sent to their neighbor and what signals they have the capacity to receive. With this interpretation of cell language, Cell Chat provides insight into signaling patterns that guide cell function. ‘whole organ,’ says Qing Nie.
What gives all its value to this deciphering system, beyond what it makes it possible to learn about the functioning of human biology, is its ability to compare the communication networks between what is happening in a healthy organ and in the same organ when sick. “The Cell Chat platform can thus be used to discover molecular drivers in many diseases; in our article, we present its power through the example of atopic dermatitis, but this tool can work on any tissue with the same success”, says the professor.
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