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A biological and a mathematical model of SLE treated by mesenchymal stem cells covering all the stages of the disease

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Abstract

In this study, we proposed a biological model explaining the progress of autoimmune activation along different stages of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). For any upcoming stage of SLE, any new component is introduced, when it is added to the model. Particularly, the interaction of mesenchymal stem cells, with the components of the model, is specified in a way that both the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory functions of these cells would be covered. The biological model is then recapitulated to a model with less complexity that explains the main features of the problem. Later, a 7th-order mathematical model for SLE is proposed, based on this simplified model. Finally, the range of validity of the proposed mathematical model was assessed. For this purpose, we simulated the model and analyzed the simulation results in case of some known behaviors of the disease, such as tolerance breach, the appearance of systemic inflammation, development of clinical signs, and occurrence of flares and improvements. The model was able to reproduce these events, qualitatively.

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No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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No specific code has been used for the analysis performed in this research.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly thank Dr. Nariman Mosaffa, Professor of immunology from the medical school of Shahid Beheshti university. Also, Dr. Anvar Fathollahi from the medical school of Shahid Beheshti university helped us to understand some immunological aspects of SLE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Motor Control and Computational Neuroscience Lab, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Yazdani & Fariba Bahrami

  2. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Arash Pourgholaminejad

  3. Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

    Reza Moghadasali

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  1. Ali Yazdani
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  2. Fariba Bahrami
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  3. Arash Pourgholaminejad
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  4. Reza Moghadasali
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Contributions

AY wrote the main text of the manuscript. FB supervised AY to develop the model, especially the mathematical aspect. AP helped to develop the model, especially the immunological aspect. And RM helped to format and edit the manuscript proportionate to biology-related papers. All of the authors contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fariba Bahrami.

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Yazdani, A., Bahrami, F., Pourgholaminejad, A. et al. A biological and a mathematical model of SLE treated by mesenchymal stem cells covering all the stages of the disease. Theory Biosci. 142, 167–179 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-023-00390-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-023-00390-4

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