Biology subjects

Hunt, C. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Hunt, C. A..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Virtual experiments provide plausible explanations for IVIVE underpredictions of hepatic clearance

We explore a virtual experiment strategy to discover plausible mechanism-based explanations for frequently inaccurate predictions of hepatic drug clearance made using established in vitro-in vivo extrapolation methods. We describe a three-protocol plan that uses validated software analogs of real in vitro and in vivo systems constructed using a common set of objects, components, spaces, and methods. Both systems utilize identical quasi-autonomous hepatocyte analogs containing enzyme-like objects. We parameterize concrete mobile objects (virtual compounds) to simulate the referent drugs disposition and removal characteristics in vitro and in vivo. The goal of Protocol one (Protocol two) is that measures of virtual compound removal using the in vitro analog (in vivo analog) map directly to the measurements used to compute intrinsic clearance (in vivo hepatic clearance). Protocol three, the focus of this work, requires achieving an essential cross-system validation target. For a subset of virtual compounds, measurements of unbound compounds entering hepatocytes (and their subsequent removal) during virtual in vitro experiments will directly predict corresponding measures made during virtual in vivo experiments. We study four highly permeable virtual compounds when their unbound fraction is fixed at one of seven values (0.05-1.0). Results span the range of hepatic extraction ratios. We achieve the cross-system validation target in 15 cases. In the other 13 cases, explanations of the in vitro-in vivo differences in disposition and removal trace to differences in compound-hepatocyte access within the two analogs during execution. The hepato-mimetic structural organization of hepatocytes within the in vivo analog, which is absent within the in vitro analog, is the determining factor. The results taken together support the feasibility of using the three-protocol plan to help explain observed in vitro-in vivo extrapolation discrepancies. We conjecture that, for some cases, the model mechanism-based explanations of discrepancies described herein will have wet-lab counterparts.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2020

A non-canonical Hippo pathway regulates spindle disassembly and cytokinesis during meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Meiosis in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used to create haploid yeast spores from a diploid mother cell. During meiosis II, cytokinesis occurs by closure of the prospore membrane, a membrane that initiates at the spindle pole body and grows to surround each of the haploid meiotic products. Timely prospore membrane closure requires SPS1, which encodes a STE20-family GCKIII kinase. To identify genes that may activate SPS1, we utilized a histone phosphorylation defect of sps1 mutants to screen for genes with a similar phenotype and found that cdc15 shared this phenotype. CDC15 encodes a Hippo-like kinase that is part of the mitotic exit network. We find that Sps1 complexes with Cdc15, that Sps1 phosphorylation requires Cdc15, and that CDC15 is also required for timely prospore membrane closure. We also find that SPS1, like CDC15, is required for meiosis II spindle disassembly and sustained anaphase II release of Cdc14 in meiosis. However, the NDR-kinase complex encoded by DBF2/DBF20 MOB1 which functions downstream of CDC15 in mitotic cells, does not appear to play a role in spindle disassembly, timely prospore membrane closure, or sustained anaphase II Cdc14 release. Taken together, our results suggest that the mitotic exit network is rewired for exit from meiosis II, such that SPS1 replaces the NDR-kinase complex downstream of CDC15.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Contrasting model mechanisms of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) release from damaged and necrotic hepatocytes as an example of general biomarker mechanisms

Interpretations of elevated blood levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) for drug-induced liver injury often assume that the biomarker is released passively from dying cells. However, the mechanisms driving that release have not been explored experimentally. The usefulness of ALT and related biomarkers will improve by developing mechanism-based explanations of elevated levels that can be expanded and elaborated incrementally. We provide the means to challenge the ability of closely related concretized model mechanisms to generate patterns of simulated hepatic injury and ALT release that scale (or not) to be quantitatively similar to the wet-lab validation targets. The validation targets for this work are elevated measures of plasma ALT following acetaminophen (APAP) exposure in mice. We build on a published model mechanism that helps explain the generation of characteristic spatiotemporal features of APAP hepatotoxicity within hepatic lobules. Discrete event and agent-oriented software methods are most prominent. We instantiate and leverage a small constellation of concrete model mechanisms. Their details during execution help bring into focus ways in which particular sources of uncertainty become entangled within and across several levels with cause-effect details. Monte Carlo sampling and simulations comprise a virtual experiment. Falsification of one (or more) of the model mechanisms provides new knowledge and shrinks the model mechanism constellation incrementally. We challenge the sufficiency of four potentially explanatory theories for ALT release. The first model mechanism tested failed to achieve the initial validation target, but each of the three others succeeded. We scale ALT amounts in virtual mice directly to target plasma ALT measures in individual mice. Results for one of the three model mechanisms matched all target ALT measures quantitatively. We assert that the actual mechanisms responsible for ALT measures in individual mice and the virtual causal processes occurring during model execution are strongly analogous within and among real hepatic lobular levels. Author summaryInterpretations of elevated biomarkers for drug-induced liver injury assume passive release during hepatocyte death, yet indirect evidence indicates that plasma levels can increase absent injury. Limitations on measurements make it infeasible to resolve causal linkages between drug disposition and plasma levels of biomarkers. To improve explanatory knowledge, we instantiate within virtual mice, plausible mechanism-based causal linkages between acetaminophen disposition and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) behavior that enables simulation results to meet stringent quantitative validation prerequisites. We challenge the sufficiency of four model mechanisms by scaling ALT measurements in virtual mice to corresponding plasma values. Virtual experiment results in which ALT release is a combined consequence of lobular-location-dependent hepatocyte death and drug-induced cellular damage, matches all validation targets. We assert that the actual mechanisms responsible for plasma ALT measures in individual mice and the virtual causal processes occurring during model execution are strongly analogous within and among real hepatic lobular levels.

pharmacology and toxicology↗

bioRxiv2017

Simulation Enabled Search for Explanatory Mechanisms of the Fracture Healing Process

A significant portion of bone fractures fail to heal properly, increasing healthcare costs. Advances in fracture management have slowed because translational barriers have limited generation of mechanism-based explanations for the healing process. When uncertainties are numerous, analogical modeling can be an effective strategy for developing plausible explanations of complex phenomena. We demonstrate the feasibility of engineering analogical models in software to provide plausible biomimetic explanations for how fracture healing may progress. Concrete analogical models - Callus Analogs - were created using the MASON simulation toolkit. We designated a Target Region initial state within a characteristic tissue section of mouse tibia fracture at day-7 and posited a corresponding day-10 Target Region final state. The goal was to discover a coarse-grain analog mechanism that would enable the discretized initial state to transform itself into the corresponding Target Region final state, thereby providing a new way to study the healing process. One of nine quasi-autonomous Tissue Unit types is assigned to each grid space, which maps to an 80x80 {micro}m region of the tissue section. All Tissue Units have an opportunity each time step to act based on individualized logic, probabilities, and information about adjacent neighbors. Action causes transition from one Tissue Unit type to another, and simulation through several thousand time steps generates a coarse-grain analog - a theory - of the healing process. We prespecified a minimum measure of success: simulated and actual Target Region states achieve [≥] 70% Similarity. We used an iterative protocol to explore many combinations of Tissue Unit logic and action constraints. Workflows progressed through four stages of analog mechanisms. Similarities of 73-90% were achieved for Mechanisms 2-4. The range of Upper-Level similarities increased to 83-94% when we allowed for uncertainty about two Tissue Unit designations. We have demonstrated how Callus Analog experiments provide domain experts with a new medium and tools for thinking about and understanding the fracture healing process.\n\nAuthor summaryTranslational barriers have limited the generation of mechanism-based explanations of fracture healing processes. Those barriers help explain why, to date, biological therapeutics have had only a minor impact on fracture management. New approaches are needed, and we present one that is intended to overcome those barriers incrementally. We created virtual Callus Analogs to simulate how the histologic appearance of a mouse fracture callus may transition from day-7 to day-10. Callus Analogs use software-based model mechanisms. Simulation experiments enable challenging and improving those model mechanisms. During execution, model mechanism operation provides a coarse-grain explanation (a theory) of a four-day portion of the healing process. Simulated day-10 callus histologic images achieved 73-94% similarity to a corresponding day-10 fracture callus image, thus demonstrating feasibility. Simulated healing provides a new perspective on the actual healing process and a new way of thinking about plausible fracture-healing processes. Our working hypothesis is that the approach can be extended to cover more of the healing process while making features of simulated and actual fracture healing increasingly analogous. The methods presented are intended to be extensible to other research areas that use histologic analysis to investigate and explain tissue level phenomena.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2017

A Model Mechanism Based Explanation of an In Vitro-In Vivo Disconnect for Improving Extrapolation and Translation

An improved understanding of in vivo-to-in vitro hepatocyte changes is crucial to interpreting in vitro data correctly and further improving hepatocyte-based in vitro-to-in vivo extrapolations to human targets. We demonstrate using virtual experiments as a means to help untangle plausible causes of inaccurate extrapolations. We start with virtual mice that have biomimetic software livers. Earlier, using those mice, we discovered model mechanisms that enabled achieving quantitative validation targets while also providing plausible causal explanations for temporal characteristics of acetaminophen hepatotoxicity. We isolated virtual hepatocytes, created a virtual culture, and then conducted dose-response experiments in both culture and mice. We expected the two dose-response curves to be displaced. We were surprised that they crossed because it evidenced that simulated acetaminophen metabolism and toxicity are different for virtual culture and mouse contexts even though individual hepatocyte mechanisms were unchanged. Crossing dose-response curves is a virtual example of an in vivo-to-in vitro disconnect. We use detailed results of experiments to explain the disconnect. Individual hepatocytes contribute differently to system level phenomena. In liver, hepatocytes are exposed to acetaminophen sequentially. Relative production of the reactive acetaminophen metabolite is largest (smallest) in pericentral (periportal) hepatocytes. Because that sequential exposure is absent in culture, hepatocytes from different lobular locations do not respond the same. A virtual Culture-to-Mouse translation can stand as a scientifically challengeable theory explaining an in vitro-in vivo disconnect. It provides a framework to develop more reliable interpretations of in vitro observations, which then may be used to improve extrapolations.\n\nAbbreviations

pharmacology and toxicology↗