Published February 27, 2024 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Public Goods Games in Disease Evolution and Spread

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Queen Mary University of London
  • 2. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
  • 3. Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
  • 4. ROR icon University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
  • 5. ROR icon University of Warsaw
  • 6. ROR icon University of Turin
  • 7. University of Szeged
  • 8. Barts Cancer Institute
  • 9. ROR icon University College Cork
  • 10. ROR icon Medical University of Vienna
  • 11. ROR icon Complexity Science Hub Vienna
  • 12. ROR icon Centre for Ecological Research
  • 13. ROR icon City, University of London
  • 14. ROR icon Delft University of Technology
  • 15. ROR icon ISI Foundation
  • 16. ROR icon University of Liverpool

Description

Cooperation arises in nature at every scale, from within cells to entire ecosystems. In the framework of evolutionary game theory, public goods games (PGGs) are used to analyse scenarios where individuals can cooperate or defect, and can predict when and how these behaviours emerge. However, too few examples motivate the transferal of knowledge from one application of PGGs to another. Here, we focus on PGGs arising in disease modelling of cancer evolution and the spread of infectious diseases. We use these two systems as case studies for the development of the theory and applications of PGGs, which we succinctly review and compare. We also posit that applications of evolutionary game theory to decision-making in cancer, such as interactions between a clinician and a tumour, can learn from the PGGs studied in epidemiology, where cooperative behaviours such as quarantine and vaccination compliance have been more thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, instances of cellular-level cooperation observed in cancers point to a corresponding area of potential interest for modellers of other diseases, be they viral, bacterial or otherwise. We aim to demonstrate the breadth of applicability of PGGs in disease modelling while providing a starting point for those interested in quantifying cooperation arising in healthcare.

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Public_Goods_Games_in_Disease_Evolution_and_Spread.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

arXiv
arXiv:2402.17842

Funding

European Commission
EvoGamesPlus - Evolutionary games and population dynamics: from theory to applications 955708