title: Critical transitions in chronic disease: transferring concepts from ecology to systems medicine.
abstract: Ecosystems and biological systems are known to be inherently complex and to exhibit nonlinear dynamics. Diseases such as microbiome dysregulation or depression can be seen as complex systems as well and were shown to exhibit patterns of nonlinearity in their response to perturbations. These nonlinearities can be revealed by a sudden shift in system states, for instance from health to disease. The identification and characterization of early warning signals which could predict upcoming critical transitions is of primordial interest as prevention of disease onset is a major aim in health care. In this review, we focus on recent evidence for critical transitions in diseases and discuss the potential of such studies for therapeutic applications.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Neurobiology Group, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trefois
authors.affiliation: Experimental Neurobiology Group, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Paul M A
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Antony
authors.affiliation: Systems Control Group, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goncalves
authors.affiliation: National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, United States; Integrative Cell Signalling Group, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skupin
authors.affiliation: Experimental Neurobiology Group, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, 7 Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. Electronic address: rudi.balling@uni.lu.
authors.forename: Rudi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies