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Lévy-like movement patterns of metastatic cancer cells revealed in microfabricated systems and implicated in vivo

Author

Listed:
  • Sabil Huda

    (Northwestern University)

  • Bettina Weigelin

    (Radboud University Medical Centre
    The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center)

  • Katarina Wolf

    (Radboud University Medical Centre)

  • Konstantin V. Tretiakov

    (Polish Academy of Sciences)

  • Konstantin Polev

    (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
    Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST))

  • Gary Wilk

    (Northwestern University)

  • Masatomo Iwasa

    (Aichi Institute of Technology)

  • Fateme S. Emami

    (Northwestern University)

  • Jakub W. Narojczyk

    (Polish Academy of Sciences)

  • Michal Banaszak

    (Adam Mickiewicz University)

  • Siowling Soh

    (Northwestern University)

  • Didzis Pilans

    (Northwestern University)

  • Amir Vahid

    (Northwestern University)

  • Monika Makurath

    (Northwestern University)

  • Peter Friedl

    (Radboud University Medical Centre
    The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
    Cancer Genomics Centre Netherlands (CG.nl))

  • Gary G. Borisy

    (The Forsyth Institute)

  • Kristiana Kandere-Grzybowska

    (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
    Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST))

  • Bartosz A. Grzybowski

    (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
    Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST))

Abstract

Metastatic cancer cells differ from their non-metastatic counterparts not only in terms of molecular composition and genetics, but also by the very strategy they employ for locomotion. Here, we analyzed large-scale statistics for cells migrating on linear microtracks to show that metastatic cancer cells follow a qualitatively different movement strategy than their non-invasive counterparts. The trajectories of metastatic cells display clusters of small steps that are interspersed with long “flights”. Such movements are characterized by heavy-tailed, truncated power law distributions of persistence times and are consistent with the Lévy walks that are also often employed by animal predators searching for scarce prey or food sources. In contrast, non-metastatic cancerous cells perform simple diffusive movements. These findings are supported by preliminary experiments with cancer cells migrating away from primary tumors in vivo. The use of chemical inhibitors targeting actin-binding proteins allows for “reprogramming” the Lévy walks into either diffusive or ballistic movements.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabil Huda & Bettina Weigelin & Katarina Wolf & Konstantin V. Tretiakov & Konstantin Polev & Gary Wilk & Masatomo Iwasa & Fateme S. Emami & Jakub W. Narojczyk & Michal Banaszak & Siowling Soh & Didzis, 2018. "Lévy-like movement patterns of metastatic cancer cells revealed in microfabricated systems and implicated in vivo," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06563-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06563-w
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    Cited by:

    1. Azevedo, T.N. & Rizzi, L.G., 2022. "Time-correlated forces and biological variability in cell motility," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).
    2. Szabolcs Suveges & Kismet Hossain-Ibrahim & J. Douglas Steele & Raluca Eftimie & Dumitru Trucu, 2021. "Mathematical Modelling of Glioblastomas Invasion within the Brain: A 3D Multi-Scale Moving-Boundary Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(18), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Nauta, Johannes & Simoens, Pieter & Khaluf, Yara, 2022. "Group size and resource fractality drive multimodal search strategies: A quantitative analysis on group foraging," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 590(C).
    4. Toman, Kellan & Voulgarakis, Nikolaos K., 2022. "Stochastic pursuit-evasion curves for foraging dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 597(C).

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