Biomedical subjects

Bahrad A Sokhansanj

Publications and source records attributed to Bahrad A Sokhansanj.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Systems approaches to the networks of aging.

The aging of an organism is the result of complex changes in structure and function of molecules, cells, tissues, and whole body systems. To increase our understanding of how aging works, we have to analyze and integrate quantitative evidence from multiple levels of biological organization. Here, we define a broader conceptual framework for a quantitative, computational systems biology approach to aging. Initially, we consider fractal supply networks that give rise to scaling laws relating body mass, metabolism and lifespan. This approach provides a top-down view of constrained cellular processes. Concomitantly, multi-omics data generation build such a framework from the bottom-up, using modeling strategies to identify key pathways and their physiological capacity. Multiscale spatio-temporal representations finally connect molecular processes with structural organization. As aging manifests on a systems level, it emerges as a highly networked process regulated through feedback loops between levels of biological organization.

Aging↗

PubMed2006

Estimating the effect of human base excision repair protein variants on the repair of oxidative DNA base damage.

Epidemiologic studies have revealed a complex association between human genetic variance and cancer risk. Quantitative biological modeling based on experimental data can play a critical role in interpreting the effect of genetic variation on biochemical pathways relevant to cancer development and progression. Defects in human DNA base excision repair (BER) proteins can reduce cellular tolerance to oxidative DNA base damage caused by endogenous and exogenous sources, such as exposure to toxins and ionizing radiation. If not repaired, DNA base damage leads to cell dysfunction and mutagenesis, consequently leading to cancer, disease, and aging. Population screens have identified numerous single-nucleotide polymorphism variants in many BER proteins and some have been purified and found to exhibit mild kinetic defects. Epidemiologic studies have led to conflicting conclusions on the association between single-nucleotide polymorphism variants in BER proteins and cancer risk. Using experimental data for cellular concentration and the kinetics of normal and variant BER proteins, we apply a previously developed and tested human BER pathway model to (i) estimate the effect of mild variants on BER of abasic sites and 8-oxoguanine, a prominent oxidative DNA base modification, (ii) identify ranges of variation associated with substantial BER capacity loss, and (iii) reveal nonintuitive consequences of multiple simultaneous variants. Our findings support previous work suggesting that mild BER variants have a minimal effect on pathway capacity whereas more severe defects and simultaneous variation in several BER proteins can lead to inefficient repair and potentially deleterious consequences of cellular damage.

DNA Damage↗

PubMed2004

Linear fuzzy gene network models obtained from microarray data by exhaustive search.

BACKGROUND: Recent technological advances in high-throughput data collection allow for experimental study of increasingly complex systems on the scale of the whole cellular genome and proteome. Gene network models are needed to interpret the resulting large and complex data sets. Rationally designed perturbations (e.g., gene knock-outs) can be used to iteratively refine hypothetical models, suggesting an approach for high-throughput biological system analysis. We introduce an approach to gene network modeling based on a scalable linear variant of fuzzy logic: a framework with greater resolution than Boolean logic models, but which, while still semi-quantitative, does not require the precise parameter measurement needed for chemical kinetics-based modeling. RESULTS: We demonstrated our approach with exhaustive search for fuzzy gene interaction models that best fit transcription measurements by microarray of twelve selected genes regulating the yeast cell cycle. Applying an efficient, universally applicable data normalization and fuzzification scheme, the search converged to a small number of models that individually predict experimental data within an error tolerance. Because only gene transcription levels are used to develop the models, they include both direct and indirect regulation of genes. CONCLUSION: Biological relationships in the best-fitting fuzzy gene network models successfully recover direct and indirect interactions predicted from previous knowledge to result in transcriptional correlation. Fuzzy models fit on one yeast cell cycle data set robustly predict another experimental data set for the same system. Linear fuzzy gene networks and exhaustive rule search are the first steps towards a framework for an integrated modeling and experiment approach to high-throughput "reverse engineering" of complex biological systems.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed2004

Oxidative DNA damage background estimated by a system model of base excision repair.

Human DNA can be damaged by natural metabolism through free radical production. It has been suggested that the equilibrium between innate damage and cellular DNA repair results in an oxidative DNA damage background that potentially contributes to disease and aging. Efforts to quantitatively characterize the human oxidative DNA damage background level, based on measuring 8-oxoguanine lesions as a biomarker, have led to estimates that vary over three to four orders of magnitude, depending on the method of measurement. We applied a previously developed and validated quantitative pathway model of human DNA base excision repair, integrating experimentally determined endogenous damage rates and model parameters from multiple sources. Our estimates of at most 100 8-oxoguanine lesions per cell are consistent with the low end of data from biochemical and cell biology experiments, a result robust to model limitations and parameter variation. Our findings show the power of quantitative system modeling to interpret composite experimental data and make biologically and physiologically relevant predictions for complex human DNA repair pathway mechanisms and capacity.

DNA Damage↗

PubMed2004

Temporal global changes in gene expression during temperature transition in Yersinia pestis.

DNA microarrays encompassing the entire genome of Yersinia pestis were used to characterize global regulatory changes during steady-state vegetative growth occurring after shift from 26 to 37 degrees C in the presence and absence of Ca2+. Transcriptional profiles revealed that 51, 4, and 13 respective genes and open reading frames (ORFs) on pCD, pPCP, and pMT were thermoinduced and that the majority of these genes carried by pCD were downregulated by Ca2+. In contrast, Ca2+ had little effect on chromosomal genes and ORFs, of which 235 were thermally upregulated and 274 were thermally downregulated. The primary consequence of these regulatory events is profligate catabolism of numerous metabolites available in the mammalian host.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed2002

A quantitative model of human DNA base excision repair. I. Mechanistic insights.

Base excision repair (BER) is a multistep process involving the sequential activity of several proteins that cope with spontaneous and environmentally induced mutagenic and cytotoxic DNA damage. Quantitative kinetic data on single proteins of BER have been used here to develop a mathematical model of the BER pathway. This model was then employed to evaluate mechanistic issues and to determine the sensitivity of pathway throughput to altered enzyme kinetics. Notably, the model predicts considerably less pathway throughput than observed in experimental in vitro assays. This finding, in combination with the effects of pathway cooperativity on model throughput, supports the hypothesis of cooperation during abasic site repair and between the apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease, Ape1, and the 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase, Ogg1. The quantitative model also predicts that for 8-oxoguanine and hydrolytic AP site damage, short-patch Polbeta-mediated BER dominates, with minimal switching to the long-patch subpathway. Sensitivity analysis of the model indicates that the Polbeta-catalyzed reactions have the most control over pathway throughput, although other BER reactions contribute to pathway efficiency as well. The studies within represent a first step in a developing effort to create a predictive model for BER cellular capacity.

DNA Repair↗

PubMed2002

Genetic variability of Yersinia pestis isolates as predicted by PCR-based IS100 genotyping and analysis of structural genes encoding glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (glpD).

A PCR-based genotyping system that detects divergence of IS100 locations within the Yersinia pestis genome was used to characterize a large collection of isolates of different biovars and geographical origins. Using sequences derived from the glycerol-negative biovar orientalis strain CO92, a set of 27 locus-specific primers was designed to amplify fragments between the end of IS100 and its neighboring gene. Geographically diverse members of the orientalis biovar formed a homogeneous group with identical genotype with the exception of strains isolated in Indochina. In contrast, strains belonging to the glycerol-positive biovar antiqua showed a variety of fingerprinting profiles. Moreover, strains of the biovar medievalis (also glycerol positive) clustered together with the antiqua isolates originated from Southeast Asia, suggesting their close phylogenetic relationships. Interestingly, a Manchurian biovar antiqua strain Nicholisk 51 displayed a genotyping pattern typical of biovar orientalis isolates. Analysis of the glycerol pathway in Y. pestis suggested that a 93-bp deletion within the glpD gene encoding aerobic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase might account for the glycerol-negative phenotype of the orientalis biovar. The glpD gene of strain Nicholisk 51 did not possess this deletion, although it contained two nucleotide substitutions characteristic of the glpD version found exclusively in biovar orientalis strains. To account for this close relationship between biovar orientalis strains and the antiqua Nicholisk 51 isolate, we postulate that the latter represents a variant of this biovar with restored ability to ferment glycerol. The fact that such a genetic lesion might be repaired as part of the natural evolutionary process suggests the existence of genetic exchange between different Yersinia strains in nature. The relevance of this observation on the emergence of epidemic Y. pestis strains is discussed.

Bacterial Proteins↗