Electromagnetic Fields, Genomic Instability and Cancer: A Systems Biological View

Abstract

This review discusses the use of systems biology in understanding the biological effectsof electromagnetic fields, with particular focus on induction of genomic instability and cancer. Weintroduce basic concepts of the dynamical systems theory such as the state space and attractors andthe use of these concepts in understanding the behavior of complex biological systems. We thendiscuss genomic instability in the framework of the dynamical systems theory, and describe thehypothesis that environmentally induced genomic instability corresponds to abnormal attractorstates; large enough environmental perturbations can force the biological system to leave normalevolutionarily optimized attractors (corresponding to normal cell phenotypes) and migrate to lessstable variant attractors. We discuss experimental approaches that can be coupled with theoreticalsystems biology such as testable predictions, derived from the theory and experimental methods,that can be used for measuring the state of the complex biological system. We also reviewpotentially informative studies and make recommendations for further studies.