Name:SimAthero
Description:Atherosclerosis is a disease that is present in almost all humans, typically beginning in early adolescence. It is a human disease broadly investigated, that is amenable to quantitative analysis. Oxidized low-density lipoproteins and their autoantibodies are involved in the development of atherosclerosis in animal models, but their role in humans is still not clear. Computer models may represent a virtual environment to perform experiments not possible in human volunteers that can provide a useful instrument for monitoring both the evolution of atherosclerotic lesions and to quantify the efficacy of treatments, including vaccines, oriented to reduce the low density lipoproteins and their oxidized fraction.
The model is the result of a wide collaboration involving other universities and the european project ImmunoGrid.
SimAthero is an Agent Based Model which describes the dynamics of both the immune response to atherogenesis and the atheromatous plaque progression in a generic artery wall
for a single human patient. However human patients are different, the well known biological diversity, and have different life styles. In order to compare the model with human data, one needs to consider many statistical sample sets of virtual patients which are, in silico, biologically different and ceck different life styles for each patient of the set. Even if the code takes secs (s ~ 30) for each simulation a numerical experiment for a single life style would require at least k*n runs, where n is the number of virtual patient in a set and k is the number of considered different sample sets. Then the required time for testing a single life style is T ~ k*n*s. Using only two sample sets of 100 virtual patients each then T ~ 1 hour. The PI2S2 grid has been heavily used to investigate many different life styles and possible therapies even if only few have been reported in the publications.
The overall results of the model shows that the level of oxidized low density lipoproteins, the immune humoral response wit
Abstract:Atherosclerosis is a disease that is present in almost all humans, typically beginning in early adolescence. It is a human disease broadly investigated, that is amenable to quantitative analysis. Oxidized low-density lipoproteins and their autoantibodies are involved in the development of atherosclerosis in animal models, but their role in humans is still not clear. Computer models may represent a virtual environment to perform experiments not possible in human volunteers that can provide a useful instrument for monitoring both the evolution of atherosclerotic lesions and to quantify the efficacy of treatments, including vaccines, oriented to reduce the low density lipoproteins and their oxidized fraction.
<br>The model is the result of a wide collaboration involving other universities and the european project ImmunoGrid.
<br>SimAthero is an Agent Based Model which describes the dynamics of both the immune response to atherogenesis and the atheromatous plaque progression in a generic artery wall
for a single human patient. However human patients are different, the well known biological diversity, and have different life styles. In order to compare the model with human data, one needs to consider many statistical sample sets of virtual patients which are, in silico, biologically different and ceck different life styles for each patient of the set. Even if the code takes secs (s ~ 30) for each simulation a numerical experiment for a single life style would require at least k*n runs, where n is the number of virtual patient in a set and k is the number of considered different sample sets. Then the required time for testing a single life style is T ~ k*n*s. Using only two sample sets of 100 virtual patients each then T ~ 1 hour. The PI2S2 grid has been heavily used to investigate many different life styles and possible therapies even if only few have been reported in the publications.
<br>The overall results of the model shows that the level of oxidized low density lipoproteins, the immune humoral response wit
Created:2010-05-01
Last updated:2010-05-01
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