Salivating at the brink of a molecular breakthrough
1 October 2008
The body could learn to regulate the release of drugs into the blood stream in a similar way that Pavlov’s dog learned to salivate at the sound of a bell, scientists claim.
Research published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface applied the mathematical model of Pavlov-type associative learning in neurons to molecular circuits, finding they had the potential to be used in single-celled organisms such as bacteria.
The exploration of applying associative learning to single-celled organisms arose from recent work which found similarities between mathematical models of neural networks and molecular circuits.
Associative learning had previously been thought confined to animals with nervous systems but scientists have now realised there is a strong possibility that associative learning can be applied to molecular circuits.
Lead author of the study, Chrisantha Fernando from the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research, said an implanted molecular circuit in bacteria inhabiting a patient could adapt to learn the anticipatory release of a drug which was particular to that patient’s needs.
He said: “Conditioning a dog to drool at the sound of a bell due to the association of the bell sound with food is a bit of a stretch from these research findings but it’s exciting to think that single-celled organisms may eventually be conditioned in a similar way.
“The application of this research for drug-releasing mechanisms in the body could be a decade away but this study of mathematical models means we are closer to exploring these types of possibilities.”
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Notes:
- Molecular circuits for associative learning in single-celled organisms, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 2008; (doi 10.1098/rsif.2008.0344) Chrisantha T. Fernando, Anthony M.L. Liekens, Lewis E.H. Bingle, Christian Beck, Thorsten Lenser, Dov J. Stekel, Jonathan E. Rowe.
- The research was funded by the FP6 EU project ‘Evolving Cell Signalling Networks in Silico’ (ESIGNET).
- Molecular circuits are DNA strands that contain genes and promoters that control when the genes are switched on and off. The genes produce transcription factor proteins that bind to promoters of other genes. Promoters can be designed to act like logic gates, e.g. AND, OR, NOT gates can easily be genetically engineered.
