Targeting the Epigenetic Profile of tumor-initiating stem cells

 IDEA for a Cancer  Vaccine:

Can Tissue-Specific, Conserved Epigenetic Signatures, of Tumor Initiating/metastasizing Stem Cells serve as targets for developing an Anti-Cancer Vaccine? 

Experience and Self

During an experience of the world, a mental model of the "world" is constructed.

This mental model is occurring "within" the ambit of, Self-Awareness. 

Self-Awareness is the enabler or illumines this experience. 

The experience of the world is the constructed mental model, upon the substratum of, Self-Awareness.

 

Environment and its influence

 Recently there was an article published titled "Live tumor imaging shows macrophage induction and TMEM-mediated enrichment of cancer stem cells during metastatic dissemination"

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27308-2

This article provided evidence for the enrichment of cancer stem cells, near macrophages. 

This finding reminds me of the influence of the "environment" on the "system". 

For example,   an individual, let's say person A has some latent characteristics or personality traits that were never given the opportunity to manifest themselves. However, under changing environmental influences, that particular trait was manifested or enriched for.

Let us take the example of extroversion. Maybe person A is not socially outgoing, avoids crowded events, tends to interact less with other people socially. Person A develops the reputation of an "introvert". But due to technological advancements, person A got the opportunity to express themselves via websites, social media, and so forth. This in turn increased the chances that person A interacts with more like-minded persons who share similar interests. This in turn resulted in person A beginning to express themselves more freely, followed by interaction with others. So the latent characteristic of "extroversion" got manifested in an otherwise introverted person.

Questions: Are cells like humans (or it is the other way around), manifesting latent characteristics in context? 

Same to Different

 Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the hereditary material is a relatively featureless polymer, of the repeating subunit of a nucleotide (base+sugar+phospategroup). Every DNA molecule of a particular type (A-DNA, B-DNA) looks alike in 3-dimensions. DNA of different sequences looks the same in 3-dimensional space or different DNA sequences have the same 3-dimensional structure(shape).

See Link Below:

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/discovery-of-dna-structure-and-function-watson-397/ 

DNA gets transcribed to the message, ribonucleic acid (RNA), which gets translated to the polypeptide (protein), composed of amino acid subunits.

The polypeptide "folds" in 3-dimensional space over time, to give rise to the final structure of the polypeptide.  Proteins may consist of a single polypeptide or multiple polypeptides interacting with each other. Polypeptides of differing sequences look different in 3-dimensional space, i.e. polypeptides of different sequences have different 3-dimensional structures (shapes and size).

See Link Below:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269806015_Toxicological_evaluation_of_proteins_introduced_into_food_crops 

Each protein has a different function, depending on its structure. 

The final folded structure of the protein depends on the amino acid sequence, with each type of amino acid possessing a "sidechain", different from the other. It is these side chains that contribute to the feature of the protein molecule. 

 The structure (size and shape) of an ant is different from that of an elephant, and both differ from humans. Humans recognize other humans, presumably via identifying common physical (face and body) features. To a human, an ant is a relatively small living organism, with no common physical (face and body) features. 

At the outset, all icosahedral viruses look similar in shape, due to the icosahedron coat, but differ in size. Bacteria are grouped as rod-shaped, spherical-shaped, spiral-shaped. There are varying species of ants with differences, but they are all grouped under the category of ants sharing similar body sizes and shapes. On the other hand, elephants share similar body shapes and sizes with each other, which differ from ants. 

These differences in size and shape between different species could be one of the factors responsible for species specificity and relatively rare inter-species mating.

Maybe the transition of looking the same to looking different is a "feature" of evolution, that is working at different scales. 

  

Cancer-A tale of defeating complexity and context

 Why does cancer develop and spread (metastasize) at the expense of the host organism ?

Tumor cells multiply indefinitely to form a tumor, which under 'appropriate' conditions spread and eventually kills the host.

It appears that the tumor is selected for, BUT, at the expense of the host organism.

This is Darwinian natural selection at play, for the tumor.

Why is the host not selected for survival ? Is it because it is the survival of multiple individual cells, whose regulation has gone awry versus a single host organism? A game of numbers where complexity is defeated.

The tumor per se (with mutations) does not kill the host, but the spread of the tumor to different sites in supportive microenvironments kills the host organism. So the mutation does not confer the survival of the tumor at the expense of the host per se, but the mutated cells functioning in specific microenvironments. 

So is there more to the story of 'Natural selection of mutants', which could be context-dependent? 

Phase Transitions in Subjective Experience

SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE 

In a thinking state of mind (random thinking as well as concentrated thinking):

The light reflected from the object impinges on the retina of the eye (the impingement or intial perturbation is called 'pratyaya' in yoga psychology) and creates a representation of the object. According to present-day neuroscience, this neural representation is encoded in the firing activity of neurons in the brain. The mind equivalent of such a representation in yoga psychology is 'vritti' /modification of the mind. There are neural correlates of the representation in the brain that can be measured. 

But then the question arises, what gives the human being, a feeling or experience of the object in the field of vision, as opposed to a camera/recorder that records the picture of the object? 

The neural representation of the object in the field of vision could be due to a 'phase transition', which results from the firing of neurons so that an image is generated on the retina of the eye. The image is the 'phase transition product', whose neural correlates could be the altered metabolic state/signaling circuit within neuronal cells, and/or wiring pattern between neuronal cells. 

The process of image generation/neural representation/vritti requires energy.  Vrittis /modifications of the mind are a series of phase transitions that could result from synchronous and /or asynchronous firing of neurons in the brain. In an ordinary mind, when random thoughts are generated, phase transitions are erratic i.e.  regulated pattern of phase transitions do not  occur, resulting in fluctuating vrittis.   Since a  human not only sees the object but feels it, (the redness of red), the feeling of aliveness of the experience of seeing the object i.e. the vrittis,   are illumined by  "Pure Consciousness/ Brahman"- the Universal energy field underlying spacetime and hence everything within it. This field is at equilibrium/still, but when illuminating the world of experience appears to be in motion i.e. energetic, because it is superimposed by mental activity i.e.pratyaya+vrittis.

In a concentrated thinking mind, phase transitions of the mind stabilize into a regular pattern, resulting in the flow state.

Pure Consciousness/Brahman, which illuminates the individual mind is manifested as Self-Awareness.

In a Meditative  Mind (During objective meditation on a name, sound-symbol):

Since during meditation (via yoga methods), mental activity is stilled (pratyaya+vritti are stilled)  phase transitions of the mind gradually stabilize into a regular pattern (flow state) as in concentrated thinking, then diminish slowly.  

Going deeper into meditation, phase transitions recede away. This is called ' Chitta Vritti Nirodh', or 'No mind' in Yoga psychology. Since mental activity/mind is not involved, no thoughts, feelings, cognitive biases are involved. Pure Consciousness/Brahman directly illuminates the nature of the object of meditation.  This is 'knowing' in the first person via meditative experience. This is the direct perception of the object of meditation, without interfering mental activity.

In a Meditative Mind (During subjective meditation on the Self/Subject itself)

Only Pure Consciousness/Brahman remains. Everything else is an appearance in Brahman.

Mind_Experience_Advances

Advances in Meditative Experience: 

In the 'Gospel of SriRamakrishna'/'Kathamrita'- Sri Ramakrishna says, "Pure Mind is Pure Atman."

What does he mean by that?

By pure mind, he means all mental energies are concentrated (like a laser beam), away from sense objects, towards the object of meditation. Since all mental disturbances/perturbations are silenced, the illumination of the object of meditation,  reveals itself as  Self-Awareness. The Self is NOT an object but the subject itself. This Self in the context of the individual human is Atman. This is Jnana/Knowledge.

When the individual no longer differentiates between the individual and environment, Atman (individual) is Brahman (Universal).When the illumination by the Atman i.e. Self Awareness, makes the observer aware of the Universe, via its illumination, there is no difference between the illuminator and the illumined, the illumined is in the context of the illuminator. This is Vijnana.

According to Sri Ramakrishna, Brahman (Universal Consciousness) and Sakti (Universal Energy/Force) are identical. Fire and its power to burn are identical. This is Vijnana.

At the Heart of Jnana and Vijnana is the Meditative Experience.