Biological feedback control—Respect the loops

El-Samad, Hana

doi:10.1016/j.cels.2021.05.004

Cited by 53 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Feedback loop control allows a system to use its output to modulate its input-dependent activity, while it has been proposed that this kind of mechanisms represent the key to understand life processes (Burlando, 2017;El-Samad, 2021).…”

Section: Systems and Control Theory Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thalamocortical bistable switch as a theoretical model of fibromyalgia pathogenesis inferred from a literature survey

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fibromyalgia (FM) is an unsolved central pain processing disturbance. We aim to provide a unifying model for FM pathogenesis based on a loop network involving thalamocortical regions, i.e., the ventroposterior lateral thalamus (VPL), the somatosensory cortex (SC), and the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN). The dynamics of the loop have been described by three differential equations having neuron mean firing rates as variables and containing Hill functions to model mutual interactions among the loop elements. A computational analysis conducted with MATLAB has shown a transition from monostability to bistability of the loop behavior for a weakening of GABAergic transmission between TRN and VPL. This involves the appearance of a high-firing-rate steady state, which becomes dominant and is assumed to represent pathogenic pain processing giving rise to chronic pain. Our model is consistent with a bulk of literature evidence, such as neuroimaging and pharmacological data collected on FM patients, and with correlations between FM and immunoendocrine conditions, such as stress, perimenopause, chronic inflammation, obesity, and chronic dizziness. The model suggests that critical targets for FM treatment are to be found among immunoendocrine pathways leading to GABA/glutamate imbalance having an impact on the thalamocortical system.

show abstract

Section: Systems and Control Theory Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thalamocortical bistable switch as a theoretical model of fibromyalgia pathogenesis inferred from a literature survey

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While many well-studied examples of feedback control in biology appear to use continuous analogue control, as opposed to discrete feedback [ 1 ], other directions to explore include synthetic biology [ 88 ] and transcriptional regulation and molecular switching [ 4 ]. Biological systems also combine continuous and discrete variables, known in engineering as hybrid dynamical systems [ 89 ], as found in gene regulation, bacterial chemotaxis and sleep–wake regulation [ 90 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our aim in this review is to synthesize principles shared by biological and engineered systems to optimize behaviour in response to discrete-event feedback [ 3 , 4 ]. We first develop a basic model for distributed event-based feedback control in which a collection of agents need to share or acquire a resource.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A feedback control principle common to several biological and engineered systems

Suen

Navlakha

2022

J. R. Soc. Interface.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Feedback control is used by many distributed systems to optimize behaviour. Traditional feedback control algorithms spend significant resources to constantly sense and stabilize a continuous control variable of interest, such as vehicle speed for implementing cruise control, or body temperature for maintaining homeostasis. By contrast, discrete-event feedback (e.g. a server acknowledging when data are successfully transmitted, or a brief antennal interaction when an ant returns to the nest after successful foraging) can reduce costs associated with monitoring a continuous variable; however, optimizing behaviour in this setting requires alternative strategies. Here, we studied parallels between discrete-event feedback control strategies in biological and engineered systems. We found that two common engineering rules—additive-increase, upon positive feedback, and multiplicative-decrease, upon negative feedback, and multiplicative-increase multiplicative-decrease—are used by diverse biological systems, including for regulating foraging by harvester ant colonies, for maintaining cell-size homeostasis, and for synaptic learning and adaptation in neural circuits. These rules support several goals of these systems, including optimizing efficiency (i.e. using all available resources); splitting resources fairly among cooperating agents, or conversely, acquiring resources quickly among competing agents; and minimizing the latency of responses, especially when conditions change. We hypothesize that theoretical frameworks from distributed computing may offer new ways to analyse adaptation behaviour of biology systems, and in return, biological strategies may inspire new algorithms for discrete-event feedback control in engineering.

show abstract

“…These advances have the potential to transform several aspects of our life by providing efficient solutions to a long list of critical global issues related to food security, healthcare, energy and the environment [1][2][3][4][5][6]. A fundamental characteristic of living systems is the presence of multi-scale feedback mechanisms facilitating their functioning and survival [7,8]. Feedback control enables a self-regulating system to adjust its current and future actions by sensing the state of its outputs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation strategies for two-output biomolecular networks

Alexis

Schulte

Cardelli

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Feedback control theory allows the development of self-regulating systems with desired performance which are predictable and insensitive to disturbances. Feedback regulatory topologies are used by many natural systems and have been of key importance in the design of reliable synthetic bio-devices operating in complex biological environments. Here, we study control schemes for biomolecular processes with two outputs of interest, expanding previous traditional concepts describing one-output systems. This is a step forward in building bio-devices capable of sophisticated functions. Regulation of such processes may unlock new design possibilities but it can be challenging due to coupling interactions while potential disturbances applied on one of the outputs may affect both. We therefore propose architectures for robustly manipulating the ratio and linear combinations of the outputs as well as each of the output independently. To demonstrate their characteristics, we apply these architectures to a simple process of two mutually activated biomolecular species. We also highlight the potential for experimental implementation by exploring synthetic realizations both in vivo and in vitro.

show abstract

Biological feedback control—Respect the loops

Cited by 53 publications

References 67 publications

Thalamocortical bistable switch as a theoretical model of fibromyalgia pathogenesis inferred from a literature survey

Thalamocortical bistable switch as a theoretical model of fibromyalgia pathogenesis inferred from a literature survey

A feedback control principle common to several biological and engineered systems

Regulation strategies for two-output biomolecular networks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About