Rate of entropy model for irreversible processes in living systems

Abstract

Abstract In living systems, it is crucial to study the exchange of entropy that plays a fundamental role in the understanding of irreversible chemical reactions. However, there are not yet works able to describe in a systematic way the rate of entropy production associated to irreversible processes. Hence, here we develop a theoretical model to compute the rate of entropy in the minimum living system. In particular, we apply the model to the most interesting and relevant case of metabolic network, the glucose catabolism in normal and cancer cells. We show, (i) the rate of internal entropy is mainly due to irreversible chemical reactions, and (ii) the rate of external entropy is mostly correlated to the heat flow towards the intercellular environment. The future applications of our model could be of fundamental importance for a more complete understanding of self-renewal and physiopatologic processes and could potentially be a support for cancer detection.