From Planning Stage Towards FAIR Data: A Practical Metadatasheet For Biomedical Scientists.

Datasets consist of measurement data and metadata. Metadata provides context, essential for understanding and (re-)using data. Various metadata standards exist for different methods, systems and contexts. However, relevant information resides at differing stages across the data-lifecycle. Often, this information is defined and standardized only at publication stage, which can lead to data loss and workload increase. In this study, we developed Metadatasheet, a metadata standard based on interviews with members of two biomedical consortia and systematic screening of data repositories. It aligns with the data-lifecycle allowing synchronous metadata recording within Microsoft Excel, a widespread data recording software. Additionally, we provide an implementation, the Metadata Workbook, that offers user-friendly features like automation, dynamic adaption, metadata integrity checks, and export options for various metadata standards. By design and due to its extensive documentation, the proposed metadata standard simplifies recording and structuring of metadata for biomedical scientists, promoting practicality and convenience in data management. This framework can accelerate scientific progress by enhancing collaboration and knowledge transfer throughout the intermediate steps of data creation.

Reaction lumping in metabolic networks for application with thermodynamic metabolic flux analysis.

Thermodynamic metabolic flux analysis (TMFA) can narrow down the space of steady-state flux distributions, but requires knowledge of the standard Gibbs free energy for the modelled reactions. The latter are often not available due to unknown Gibbs free energy change of formation [Formula: see text], of metabolites. To optimize the usage of data on thermodynamics in constraining a model, reaction lumping has been proposed to eliminate metabolites with unknown [Formula: see text]. However, the lumping procedure has not been formalized nor implemented for systematic identification of lumped reactions. Here, we propose, implement, and test a combined procedure for reaction lumping, applicable to genome-scale metabolic models. It is based on identification of groups of metabolites with unknown [Formula: see text] whose elimination can be conducted independently of the others via: (1) group implementation, aiming to eliminate an entire such group, and, if this is infeasible, (2) a sequential implementation to ensure that a maximal number of metabolites with unknown [Formula: see text] are eliminated. Our comparative analysis with genome-scale metabolic models of Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Homo sapiens shows that the combined procedure provides an efficient means for systematic identification of lumped reactions. We also demonstrate that TMFA applied to models with reactions lumped according to the proposed procedure lead to more precise predictions in comparison to the original models. The provided implementation thus ensures the reproducibility of the findings and their application with standard TMFA.

Ensemble completeness in conformer sampling: the case of small macrocycles.

In this study we compare the three algorithms for the generation of conformer ensembles Biovia BEST, Schrödinger Prime macrocycle sampling (PMM) and Conformator (CONF) form the University of Hamburg, with ensembles derived for exhaustive molecular dynamics simulations applied to a dataset of 7 small macrocycles in two charge states and three solvents. Ensemble completeness is a prerequisite to allow for the selection of relevant diverse conformers for many applications in computational chemistry. We apply conformation maps using principal component analysis based on ring torsions. Our major finding critical for all applications of conformer ensembles in any computational study is that maps derived from MD with explicit solvent are significantly distinct between macrocycles, charge states and solvents, whereas the maps for post-optimized conformers using implicit solvent models from all generator algorithms are very similar independent of the solvent. We apply three metrics for the quantification of the relative covered ensemble space, namely cluster overlap, variance statistics, and a novel metric, Mahalanobis distance, showing that post-optimized MD ensembles cover a significantly larger conformational space than the generator ensembles, with the ranking PMM > BEST >> CONF. Furthermore, we find that the distributions of 3D polar surface areas are very similar for all macrocycles independent of charge state and solvent, except for the smaller and more strained compound 7, and that there is also no obvious correlation between 3D PSA and intramolecular hydrogen bond count distributions.

Disease severity-specific neutrophil signatures in blood transcriptomes stratify COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is currently leading to increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients all over the world. Clinical presentations range from asymptomatic, mild respiratory tract infection, to severe cases with acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure, and death. Reports on a dysregulated immune system in the severe cases call for a better characterization and understanding of the changes in the immune system. METHODS: In order to dissect COVID-19-driven immune host responses, we performed RNA-seq of whole blood cell transcriptomes and granulocyte preparations from mild and severe COVID-19 patients and analyzed the data using a combination of conventional and data-driven co-expression analysis. Additionally, publicly available data was used to show the distinction from COVID-19 to other diseases. Reverse drug target prediction was used to identify known or novel drug candidates based on finding from data-driven findings. RESULTS: Here, we profiled whole blood transcriptomes of 39 COVID-19 patients and 10 control donors enabling a data-driven stratification based on molecular phenotype. Neutrophil activation-associated signatures were prominently enriched in severe patient groups, which was corroborated in whole blood transcriptomes from an independent second cohort of 30 as well as in granulocyte samples from a third cohort of 16 COVID-19 patients (44 samples). Comparison of COVID-19 blood transcriptomes with those of a collection of over 3100 samples derived from 12 different viral infections, inflammatory diseases, and independent control samples revealed highly specific transcriptome signatures for COVID-19. Further, stratified transcriptomes predicted patient subgroup-specific drug candidates targeting the dysregulated systemic immune response of the host. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides novel insights in the distinct molecular subgroups or phenotypes that are not simply explained by clinical parameters. We show that whole blood transcriptomes are extremely informative for COVID-19 since they capture granulocytes which are major drivers of disease severity.

Scalable Prediction of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Using High-Dimensional Machine Learning and Blood Transcriptomics.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a severe, mostly fatal hematopoietic malignancy. We were interested in whether transcriptomic-based machine learning could predict AML status without requiring expert input. Using 12,029 samples from 105 different studies, we present a large-scale study of machine learning-based prediction of AML in which we address key questions relating to the combination of machine learning and transcriptomics and their practical use. We find data-driven, high-dimensional approaches-in which multivariate signatures are learned directly from genome-wide data with no prior knowledge-to be accurate and robust. Importantly, these approaches are highly scalable with low marginal cost, essentially matching human expert annotation in a near-automated workflow. Our results support the notion that transcriptomics combined with machine learning could be used as part of an integrated -omics approach wherein risk prediction, differential diagnosis, and subclassification of AML are achieved by genomics while diagnosis could be assisted by transcriptomic-based machine learning.

Structure-Permeability Relationship of Semipeptidic Macrocycles-Understanding and Optimizing Passive Permeability and Efflux Ratio.

We herein report the first thorough analysis of the structure-permeability relationship of semipeptidic macrocycles. In total, 47 macrocycles were synthesized using a hybrid solid-phase/solution strategy, and then their passive and cellular permeability was assessed using the parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) and Caco-2 assay, respectively. The results indicate that semipeptidic macrocycles generally possess high passive permeability based on the PAMPA, yet their cellular permeability is governed by efflux, as reported in the Caco-2 assay. Structural variations led to tractable structure-permeability and structure-efflux relationships, wherein the linker length, stereoinversion, N-methylation, and peptoids site-specifically impact the permeability and efflux. Extensive nuclear magnetic resonance, molecular dynamics, and ensemble-based three-dimensional polar surface area (3D-PSA) studies showed that ensemble-based 3D-PSA is a good predictor of passive permeability.

Transcriptional Signature Derived from Murine Tumor-Associated Macrophages Correlates with Poor Outcome in Breast Cancer Patients.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are frequently the most abundant immune cells in cancers and are associated with poor survival. Here, we generated TAM molecular signatures from K14cre;Cdh1flox/flox;Trp53flox/flox (KEP) and MMTV-NeuT (NeuT) transgenic mice that resemble human invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and HER2+ tumors, respectively. Determination of TAM-specific signatures requires comparison with healthy mammary tissue macrophages to avoid overestimation of gene expression differences. TAMs from the two models feature a distinct transcriptomic profile, suggesting that the cancer subtype dictates their phenotype. The KEP-derived signature reliably correlates with poor overall survival in ILC but not in triple-negative breast cancer patients, indicating that translation of murine TAM signatures to patients is cancer subtype dependent. Collectively, we show that a transgenic mouse tumor model can yield a TAM signature relevant for human breast cancer outcome prognosis and provide a generalizable strategy for determining and applying immune cell signatures provided the murine model reflects the human disease.