The Limits of Reductionism in Medicine: Could Systems Biology Offer an Alternative?

Ahn, Andrew; Tewari, Muneesh; Poon, Chi Sang; Phillips, Russell S.

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030208

Cited by 433 publications

(330 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This also holds for the human whole-body system (HWBS). Citing [1], a biological system is an "interactive and dynamic web in which the properties of a single molecule are contingent on its relationship to other molecules and the activities of those other molecules within the network"; it is appropriate to understand "web" as an interwoven structure and network as total context. This total or overall context may also be referred to as system context, more specifically as an internal context contrasting any concomitant external context of a system's life surroundings.…”

Section: Molecular Biology Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

On Reverse Engineering of Human Body System

Mau¹,

Heine²

2016

Collection of Selected Papers of the II International Conference on Information Technology and Nanotechnology

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Abstract. From a holistic perspective, functional body can be decomposed into functional core body of vital functions and functionally extended body of physical productivity activity; operational body stands for cognitive and volitive functionality that expresses as a person's interactions with environment and social settings and become perceived as behavior. A factory interpretation suggests to see human body as a bioautomaton, operationally utonomous but functionally non-autarkic. Analogies with complex organizations suggest distinction of functional levels, which are concatenated top-down in a "knitting" way, with an interpretation of emergent properties as next-lower level interactions.

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Section: Molecular Biology Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

On Reverse Engineering of Human Body System

Mau¹,

Heine²

2016

Collection of Selected Papers of the II International Conference on Information Technology and Nanotechnology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The former step in this evolution can be illustrated by the development of genetic determinism into an approach in terms of gene-environment interactions [27][28][29]. The latter can be illustrated by the development of the systems approach [26,30].…”

Section: Explanatory Pluralism and Actual Medical Research And Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Explanatory pluralism in the medical sciences: Theory and practice

2010

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Abstract:Explanatory pluralism is the view that the best form and level of explanation depends on the kind of question one seeks to answer by the explanation, and that in order to answer all questions in the best way possible, we need more than one form and level of explanation. In the first part of this article, we argue that explanatory pluralism holds for the medical sciences, at least in theory. However, in the second part of the article we show that medical research and practice is actually not fully and truly explanatory pluralist yet. Although the literature demonstrates a slowly growing interest in non-reductive explanations in medicine, the dominant approach in medicine is still methodologically reductionist. This implies that non-reductive explanations often do not get the attention they deserve. We argue that the field of medicine could benefit greatly by reconsidering its reductive tendencies and becoming fully and truly explanatory pluralist. Nonetheless, trying to achieve the right balance in the search for and application of reductive and non-reductive explanations will in any case be a difficult exercise.

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“…Time is an essential dimension of complex systems (52). Therefore, we asked whether differences in gene expression profile of anti-H7 a and anti-HY T cells were peculiar to day 14 or would be present during all phases of the immune response.…”

Section: Time-sequential Evaluation Of Anti-h7 a And Anti-hy T Cell Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asynchronous Differentiation of CD8 T Cells That Recognize Dominant and Cryptic Antigens

Baron

Meunier

Caron

et al. 2006

The Journal of Immunology

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Restriction of T cell responses to a few epitopes (immunodominance) is a central feature of immune responses. We analyzed the entire transcriptome of effector CD8 T cells specific for a dominant (H7a) and a cryptic (HY) mouse Ag and performed a longitudinal analysis of selected T cell differentiation markers. We found that Ag specificity had a relatively modest influence on the repertoire of genes that are transcriptionally modulated by the CD8 T cell differentiation program. Although the differentiation programs of anti-H7a and anti-HY T cells were similar, they did not progress simultaneously. The expansion peak of anti-H7a T cells was reached on day 10 while that of anti-HY T cells was attained on days 15–20. Between days 10 and 20, anti-H7a T cells were in the contraction phase and anti-HY T cells in the expansion phase. Furthermore, expansion and development of effector function were well-synchronized in anti-H7a T cells but were disconnected in anti-HY T cells. We propose that, by leading to selective expansion of the fittest CD8 T cells, immunodominance may be beneficial to the host. Inhibition of the T cell response to cryptic Ag would ensure that host resources (APC, cytokines) for which T cells compete are devoted to T cells with the best effector potential. One implication is that favoring expansion of the fittest effector T cells in general may be more important than increasing the diversity of the T cell repertoire.

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The Limits of Reductionism in Medicine: Could Systems Biology Offer an Alternative?

Abstract: In the first of a two part series, Ahn and colleagues discuss the reductionist approach pervading medicine and explain how a systems approach (as advocated by systems biology) may complement reductionism.

Cited by 433 publications

References 32 publications

On Reverse Engineering of Human Body System

On Reverse Engineering of Human Body System

Explanatory pluralism in the medical sciences: Theory and practice

Asynchronous Differentiation of CD8 T Cells That Recognize Dominant and Cryptic Antigens

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