scholarly journals Reduced order modeling and analysis of the human complement system

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adithya Sagar ◽  
Wei Dai ◽  
Mason Minot ◽  
Rachel LeCover ◽  
Jeffrey D. Varner

AbstractComplement is an important pathway in innate immunity, inflammation, and many disease processes. However, despite its importance, there are few validated mathematical models of complement activation. In this study, we developed an ensemble of experimentally validated reduced order complement models. We combined ordinary differential equations with logical rules to produce a compact yet predictive model of complement activation. The model, which described the lectin and alternative pathways, was an order of magnitude smaller than comparable models in the literature. We estimated an ensemble of model parameters fromin vitrodynamic measurements of the C3a and C5a complement proteins. Subsequently, we validated the model on unseen C3a and C5a measurements not used for model training. Despite its small size, the model was surprisingly predictive. Global sensitivity and robustness analysis suggested complement was robust to any single therapeutic intervention. Only the simultaneous knockdown of both C3 and C5 consistently reduced C3a and C5a formation from all pathways. Taken together, we developed a validated mathematical model of complement activation that was computationally inexpensive, and could easily be incorporated into pre-existing or new pharmacokinetic models of immune system function. The model described experimental data, and predicted the need for multiple points of therapeutic intervention to fully disrupt complement activation.

1980 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 944-949
Author(s):  
J N Galgiani ◽  
P Yam ◽  
L D Petz ◽  
P L Williams ◽  
D A Stevens

Mycelial- or spherule-phase derivatives of Coccidioides immitis caused a decrease in vitro of total hemolytic complement in serum from a nonsensitized person. Activation involved both classic and alternative pathways as shown by deprssion of hemolytic C4 and by generation of products of activation of components C3, C4, and factor B. In addition, functional complement activity or immunoreactive levels of complement components or both were measured in 23 patients with self-limited or disseminated coccidioidomycosis. Low total hemolytic complement was found in nine, usually during the early phase of primary illness, and was transient. Hemolytic C4 was low, and the effect of inulin to decrease complement levels was blunted, suggested both classic and alternative pathways may be deficient. However, associated depression of immunoreactive levels of components assayed (C3, C4, C5, factor B, and properdin) was not consistently found. This disparity raises the possibility of enhanced in vitro inactivation analogous to activation by immune complexes.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (05) ◽  
pp. 774-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T Brandt ◽  
Carmen J Julius ◽  
Jeanne M Osborne ◽  
Clark L Anderson

SummaryImmune-mediated platelet activation is emerging as an important pathogenic mechanism of thrombosis. In vitro studies have suggested two distinct pathways for immune-mediated platelet activation; one involving clustering of platelet FcyRIIa, the other involving platelet-associated complement activation. HLA-related antibodies have been shown to cause platelet aggregation, but the mechanism has not been clarified. We evaluated the mechanism of platelet aggregation induced by HLA-related antibodies from nine patients. Antibody to platelet FcyRIIa failed to block platelet aggregation with 8/9 samples, indicating that engagement of platelet FcyRIIa is not necessary for the platelet aggregation induced by HLA-related antibodies. In contrast, platelet aggregation was blocked by antibodies to human C8 (5/7) or C9 (7/7). F(ab’)2 fragments of patient IgG failed to induce platelet activation although they bound to HLA antigen on platelets. Intact patient IgG failed to aggregate washed platelets unless aged serum was added. The activating IgG could be adsorbed by incubation with lymphocytes and eluted from the lymphocytes. These results indicate that complement activation is involved in the aggregation response to HLA-related antibodies. This is the first demonstration of complement-mediated platelet aggregation by clinical samples. Five of the patients developed thrombocytopenia in relationship to blood transfusion and two patients developed acute thromboembolic disease, suggesting that these antibodies and the complement-dependent pathway of platelet aggregation may be of clinical significance.


1966 ◽  
Vol 15 (03/04) ◽  
pp. 349-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.H Özge ◽  
H.C Rowsell ◽  
H.G Downie ◽  
J.F Mustard

SummaryThe addition of trace amounts of adrenaline to whole blood in plasma in vitro increased factor VIII, factor IX and whole plasma activity in the thromboplastin generation test. This was dose dependent.Adrenaline infusions less than 22 (μg/kg body weight in normal dogs accelerated clotting, increased factor IX, factor VIII and whole plasma activity in the thromboplastin generation test and caused a fall in blood pH. In a factor IX deficient dog, there was no increase in factor IX activity. After adrenaline infusions, however, the other changes occurred and were of the same order of magnitude as in the normal. Adrenaline in doses greater than 22 μg/kg body weight did not produce as great an effect on clotting in normal or factor IX deficient dogs. The platelet count in the peripheral blood was increased following the infusion of all doses of adrenaline. These observations suggest that the accelerating effect of adrenaline on clotting is not mediated through increase in activity of a specific clotting factor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Ma ◽  
Jing Sun ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Yang Feng ◽  
Yao Sun ◽  
...  

AbstractThe development of biomedical glues is an important, yet challenging task as seemingly mutually exclusive properties need to be combined in one material, i.e. strong adhesion and adaption to remodeling processes in healing tissue. Here, we report a biocompatible and biodegradable protein-based adhesive with high adhesion strengths. The maximum strength reaches 16.5 ± 2.2 MPa on hard substrates, which is comparable to that of commercial cyanoacrylate superglue and higher than other protein-based adhesives by at least one order of magnitude. Moreover, the strong adhesion on soft tissues qualifies the adhesive as biomedical glue outperforming some commercial products. Robust mechanical properties are realized without covalent bond formation during the adhesion process. A complex consisting of cationic supercharged polypeptides and anionic aromatic surfactants with lysine to surfactant molar ratio of 1:0.9 is driven by multiple supramolecular interactions enabling such strong adhesion. We demonstrate the glue’s robust performance in vitro and in vivo for cosmetic and hemostasis applications and accelerated wound healing by comparison to surgical wound closures.


Oncogene ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Takagi ◽  
Yuki Sasaki ◽  
Sumie Koike ◽  
Ai Takemoto ◽  
Yosuke Seto ◽  
...  

AbstractOsteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone cancer, with high rates of pulmonary metastasis. Osteosarcoma patients with pulmonary metastasis have worse prognosis than those with localized disease, leading to dramatically reduced survival rates. Therefore, understanding the biological characteristics of metastatic osteosarcoma and the molecular mechanisms of invasion and metastasis of osteosarcoma cells will lead to the development of innovative therapeutic intervention for advanced osteosarcoma. Here, we identified that osteosarcoma cells commonly exhibit high platelet activation-inducing characteristics, and molecules released from activated platelets promote the invasiveness of osteosarcoma cells. Given that heat-denatured platelet releasate maintained the ability to promote osteosarcoma invasion, we focused on heat-tolerant molecules, such as lipid mediators in the platelet releasate. Osteosarcoma-induced platelet activation leads to abundant lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) release. Exposure to LPA or platelet releasate induced morphological changes and increased invasiveness of osteosarcoma cells. By analyzing publicly available transcriptome datasets and our in-house osteosarcoma patient-derived xenograft tumors, we found that LPA receptor 1 (LPAR1) is notably upregulated in osteosarcoma. LPAR1 gene KO in osteosarcoma cells abolished the platelet-mediated osteosarcoma invasion in vitro and the formation of early pulmonary metastatic foci in experimental pulmonary metastasis models. Of note, the pharmacological inhibition of LPAR1 by the orally available LPAR1 antagonist, ONO-7300243, prevented pulmonary metastasis of osteosarcoma in the mouse models. These results indicate that the LPA–LPAR1 axis is essential for the osteosarcoma invasion and metastasis, and targeting LPAR1 would be a promising therapeutic intervention for advanced osteosarcoma.


2002 ◽  
Vol 364 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth J.O. EVANS ◽  
Alan MORGAN

The secretory vesicle cysteine string proteins (CSPs) are members of the DnaJ family of chaperones, and function at late stages of Ca2+-regulated exocytosis by an unknown mechanism. To determine novel binding partners of CSPs, we employed a pull-down strategy from purified rat brain membrane or cytosolic proteins using recombinant hexahistidine-tagged (His6-)CSP. Western blotting of the CSP-binding proteins identified synaptotagmin I to be a putative binding partner. Furthermore, pull-down assays using cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA)-phosphorylated CSP recovered significantly less synaptotagmin. Complexes containing CSP and synaptotagmin were immunoprecipitated from rat brain membranes, further suggesting that these proteins interact in vivo. Binding assays in vitro using recombinant proteins confirmed a direct interaction between the two proteins and demonstrated that the PKA-phosphorylated form of CSP binds synaptotagmin with approximately an order of magnitude lower affinity than the non-phosphorylated form. Genetic studies have implicated each of these proteins in the Ca2+-dependency of exocytosis and, since CSP does not bind Ca2+, this novel interaction might explain the Ca2+-dependent actions of CSP.


1995 ◽  
Vol 377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilo P. Drüsedau ◽  
Andreas N. Panckow ◽  
Bernd Schröder

ABSTRACTInvestigations on the gap state density were performed on a variety of samples of hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium alloys (Ge fraction around 40 at%) containing different amounts of hydrogen. From subgap absorption measurements the values of the “integrated excess absorption” and the “defect absorption” were determined. Using a calibration constant, which is well established for the determination of the defect density from the integrated excess absorption of a-Si:H and a-Ge:H, it was found that the defect density is underestimated by nearly one order of magnitude. The underlying mechanisms for this discrepancy are discussed. The calibration constants for the present alloys are determined to 8.3×1016 eV−1 cnr2 and 1.7×1016 cm−2 for the excess and defect absorption, respectively. The defect density of the films was found to depend on the Urbach energy according to the law derived from Stutzmann's dangling bond - weak bond conversion model for a-Si:H. However, the model parameters - the density of states at the onset of the exponential tails N*=27×1020 eV−1 cm−3 and the position of the demarcation energy Edb-E*=0.1 eV are considerably smaller than in a-Si:H.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen DesRosiers ◽  
Marc S. Mendonca ◽  
Craig Tyree ◽  
Vadim Moskvin ◽  
Morris Bank ◽  
...  

For most basic radiobiological research applications involving irradiation of small animals, it is difficult to achieve the same high precision dose distribution realized with human radiotherapy. The precision for irradiations performed with standard radiotherapy equipment is ±2 mm in each dimension, and is adequate for most human treatment applications. For small animals such as rodents, whose organs and tissue structures may be an order of magnitude smaller than those of humans, the corresponding precision required is closer to ±0.2 mm, if comparisons or extrapolations are to be made to human data. The Leksell Gamma Knife is a high precision radiosurgery irradiator, with precision in each dimension not exceeding 0.5 mm, and overall precision of 0.7 mm. It has recently been utilized to treat ocular melanoma and induce targeted lesions in the brains of small animals. This paper describes the dosimetry and a technique for performing irradiation of a single rat eye and lens with the Gamma Knife while allowing the contralateral eye and lens of the same rat to serve as the “control”. The dosimetry was performed with a phantom in vitro utilizing a pinpoint ion chamber and thermoluminescent dosimeters, and verified by Monte Carlo simulations. We found that the contralateral eye received less than 5% of the administered dose for a 15 Gy exposure to the targeted eye. In addition, after 15 Gy irradiation 15 out of 16 animals developed cataracts in the irradiated target eyes, while 0 out of 16 contralateral eyes developed cataracts over a 6-month period of observation. Experiments at 5 and 10 Gy also confirmed the lack of cataractogenesis in the contralateral eye. Our results validate the use of the Gamma Knife for cataract studies in rodents, and confirmed the precision and utility of the instrument as a small animal irradiator for translational radiobiology experiments.


Author(s):  
Stephen A Solovitz

Abstract Following volcanic eruptions, forecasters need accurate estimates of mass eruption rate (MER) to appropriately predict the downstream effects. Most analyses use simple correlations or models based on large eruptions at steady conditions, even though many volcanoes feature significant unsteadiness. To address this, a superposition model is developed based on a technique used for spray injection applications, which predicts plume height as a function of the time-varying exit velocity. This model can be inverted, providing estimates of MER using field observations of a plume. The model parameters are optimized using laboratory data for plumes with physically-relevant exit profiles and Reynolds numbers, resulting in predictions that agree to within 10% of measured exit velocities. The model performance is examined using a historic eruption from Stromboli with well-documented unsteadiness, again providing MER estimates of the correct order of magnitude. This method can provide a rapid alternative for real-time forecasting of small, unsteady eruptions.


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