Modeling cyclic therapy in gene regulatory networks

External control of a gene regulatory network is used for the purpose of avoiding undesirable states, such as those associated with disease. Certain types of cancer therapies are given in cycles: each treatment is followed by a recovery phase. In a recovery phase, the side effects tend to gradually degrade. Here, an intervention strategy that simulates cyclic therapies is proposed. It is shown how an optimal cyclic intervention strategy can be devised in the context of probabilistic Boolean networks. The effectiveness of optimal cyclic therapies is shown through numerical studies.