RESUMEN
Isotopically nonstationary metabolic flux analysis (INST-MFA) is a powerful technique for studying plant central metabolism, which involves introducing a 13CO2 tracer to plant leaves and sampling the labeled metabolic intermediates during the transient period before reaching an isotopic steady state. The metabolic intermediates involved in the C3 cycle have exceptionally fast turnover rates, with some intermediates turning over many times a second. As a result, it is necessary to rapidly introduce the label and then rapidly quench the plant tissue to determine concentrations in the light or capture the labeling kinetics of these intermediates at early labeling time points. Here, we describe a rapid quenching (0.1-0.5 s) system for 13CO2 labeling experiments in plant leaves to minimize metabolic changes during labeling and quenching experiments. This system is integrated into a commercially available gas exchange analyzer to measure initial rates of gas exchange, precisely control ambient conditions, and monitor the conversion from 12CO2 to 13CO2.
Asunto(s)
Dióxido de Carbono , Espectrometría de Masas , Hojas de la Planta , Hojas de la Planta/metabolismo , Hojas de la Planta/química , Dióxido de Carbono/metabolismo , Dióxido de Carbono/análisis , Espectrometría de Masas/métodos , Isótopos de Carbono/análisis , Isótopos de Carbono/química , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , FotosíntesisRESUMEN
Metabolic reaction rates (fluxes) play a crucial role in comprehending cellular phenotypes and are essential in areas such as metabolic engineering, biotechnology, and biomedical research. The state-of-the-art technique for estimating fluxes is metabolic flux analysis using isotopic labelling (13C-MFA), which uses a dataset-model combination to determine the fluxes. Bayesian statistical methods are gaining popularity in the field of life sciences, but the use of 13C-MFA is still dominated by conventional best-fit approaches. The slow take-up of Bayesian approaches is, at least partly, due to the unfamiliarity of Bayesian methods to metabolic engineering researchers. To address this unfamiliarity, we here outline similarities and differences between the two approaches and highlight particular advantages of the Bayesian way of flux analysis. With a real-life example, re-analysing a moderately informative labelling dataset of E. coli, we identify situations in which Bayesian methods are advantageous and more informative, pointing to potential pitfalls of current 13C-MFA evaluation approaches. We propose the use of Bayesian model averaging (BMA) for flux inference as a means of overcoming the problem of model uncertainty through its tendency to assign low probabilities to both, models that are unsupported by data, and models that are overly complex. In this capacity, BMA resembles a tempered Ockham's razor. With the tempered razor as a guide, BMA-based 13C-MFA alleviates the problem of model selection uncertainty and is thereby capable of becoming a game changer for metabolic engineering by uncovering new insights and inspiring novel approaches.
Asunto(s)
Teorema de Bayes , Isótopos de Carbono , Escherichia coli , Isótopos de Carbono/metabolismo , Escherichia coli/metabolismo , Escherichia coli/genética , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Modelos Biológicos , Ingeniería Metabólica/métodos , Marcaje IsotópicoRESUMEN
Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is a valuable tool for quantifying cellular phenotypes and to guide plant metabolic engineering. By introducing stable isotopic tracers and employing mathematical models, MFA can quantify the rates of metabolic reactions through biochemical pathways. Recent applications of isotopically nonstationary MFA (INST-MFA) to plants have elucidated nonintuitive metabolism in leaves under optimal and stress conditions, described coupled fluxes for fast-growing algae, and produced a synergistic multi-organ flux map that is a first in MFA for any biological system. These insights could not be elucidated through other approaches and show the potential of INST-MFA to correct an oversimplified understanding of plant metabolism.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Plantas , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Plantas/metabolismo , Modelos Biológicos , Hojas de la Planta/metabolismoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Microbial communities play a crucial role in ecosystem function through metabolic interactions. Genome-scale modeling is a promising method to understand these interactions and identify strategies to optimize the community. Flux balance analysis (FBA) is most often used to predict the flux through all reactions in a genome-scale model; however, the fluxes predicted by FBA depend on a user-defined cellular objective. Flux sampling is an alternative to FBA, as it provides the range of fluxes possible within a microbial community. Furthermore, flux sampling can capture additional heterogeneity across a population, especially when cells exhibit sub-maximal growth rates. RESULTS: In this study, we simulate the metabolism of microbial communities and compare the metabolic characteristics found with FBA and flux sampling. With sampling, we find significant differences in the predicted metabolism, including an increase in cooperative interactions and pathway-specific changes in predicted flux. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest the importance of sampling-based approaches to evaluate metabolic interactions. Furthermore, we emphasize the utility of flux sampling in quantitatively studying interactions between cells and organisms.
Asunto(s)
Genoma , Microbiota , Redes y Vías Metabólicas/genética , Modelos Biológicos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodosRESUMEN
Many biological phenotypes are rooted in metabolic pathway activity rather than the concentrations of individual metabolites. Despite this, most metabolomics studies only capture steady-state metabolism - not metabolic flux. Although sophisticated metabolic flux analysis strategies have been developed, these methods are technically challenging and difficult to implement in large-cohort studies. Recently, a new boundary flux analysis (BFA) approach has emerged that captures large-scale metabolic flux phenotypes by quantifying changes in metabolite levels in the media of cultured cells. This approach is advantageous because it is relatively easy to implement yet captures complex metabolic flux phenotypes. We describe the opportunities and challenges of BFA and illustrate how it can be harnessed to investigate a wide transect of biological phenomena.
Asunto(s)
Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Metabolómica , Humanos , Metabolómica/métodos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis (13C-MFA) and Flux Balance Analysis (FBA) are widely used to investigate the operation of biochemical networks in both biological and biotechnological research. Both methods use metabolic reaction network models of metabolism operating at steady state so that reaction rates (fluxes) and the levels of metabolic intermediates are constrained to be invariant. They provide estimated (MFA) or predicted (FBA) values of the fluxes through the network in vivo, which cannot be measured directly. These fluxes can shed light on basic biology and have been successfully used to inform metabolic engineering strategies. Several approaches have been taken to test the reliability of estimates and predictions from constraint-based methods and to compare alternative model architectures. Despite advances in other areas of the statistical evaluation of metabolic models, such as the quantification of flux estimate uncertainty, validation and model selection methods have been underappreciated and underexplored. We review the history and state-of-the-art in constraint-based metabolic model validation and model selection. Applications and limitations of the χ2 -test of goodness-of-fit, the most widely used quantitative validation and selection approach in 13C-MFA, are discussed, and complementary and alternative forms of validation and selection are proposed. A combined model validation and selection framework for 13C-MFA incorporating metabolite pool size information that leverages new developments in the field is presented and advocated for. Finally, we discuss how adopting robust validation and selection procedures can enhance confidence in constraint-based modeling as a whole and ultimately facilitate more widespread use of FBA in biotechnology.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Modelos Biológicos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Ingeniería Metabólica/métodos , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Isótopos de CarbonoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Flux Balance Analysis (FBA) is a key metabolic modeling method used to simulate cellular metabolism under steady-state conditions. Its simplicity and versatility have led to various strategies incorporating transcriptomic and proteomic data into FBA, successfully predicting flux distribution and phenotypic results. However, despite these advances, the untapped potential lies in leveraging gene-related connections like co-expression patterns for valuable insights. RESULTS: To fill this gap, we introduce ICON-GEMs, an innovative constraint-based model to incorporate gene co-expression network into the FBA model, facilitating more precise determination of flux distributions and functional pathways. In this study, transcriptomic data from both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were integrated into their respective genome-scale metabolic models. A comprehensive gene co-expression network was constructed as a global view of metabolic mechanism of the cell. By leveraging quadratic programming, we maximized the alignment between pairs of reaction fluxes and the correlation of their corresponding genes in the co-expression network. The outcomes notably demonstrated that ICON-GEMs outperformed existing methodologies in predictive accuracy. Flux variabilities over subsystems and functional modules also demonstrate promising results. Furthermore, a comparison involving different types of biological networks, including protein-protein interactions and random networks, reveals insights into the utilization of the co-expression network in genome-scale metabolic engineering. CONCLUSION: ICON-GEMs introduce an innovative constrained model capable of simultaneous integration of gene co-expression networks, ready for board application across diverse transcriptomic data sets and multiple organisms. It is freely available as open-source at https://github.com/ThummaratPaklao/ICOM-GEMs.git .
Asunto(s)
Proteómica , Biología de Sistemas , Genoma , Ingeniería Metabólica , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica , Escherichia coli/genética , Escherichia coli/metabolismo , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genética , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolismo , Modelos Biológicos , Redes y Vías Metabólicas/genética , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodosRESUMEN
Gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with electron ionization (GC-EI-MS/MS) provides rich information on stable-isotope labeling for 13C-metabolic flux analysis (13C-MFA). To pave the way for the routine application of tandem MS data for metabolic flux quantification, we aimed to compile a comprehensive library of GC-EI-MS/MS fragments of tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) derivatized proteinogenic amino acids. First, we established an analytical workflow that combines high-resolution gas chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and fully 13C-labeled biomass to identify and structurally elucidate tandem MS amino acid fragments. Application of the high-mass accuracy MS procedure resulted into the identification of 129 validated precursor-product ion pairs of 13 amino acids with 30 fragments being accepted for 13C-MFA. The practical benefit of the novel tandem MS data was demonstrated by a proof-of-concept study, which confirmed the importance of the compiled library for high-resolution 13C-MFA. ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY: An analytical workflow that combines high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) and fully 13C-labeled biomass to identify and structurally elucidate tandem MS amino acid fragments, which provide positional information and therefore offering significant advantages over traditional MS to improve 13C-metabolic flux analysis.
Asunto(s)
Escherichia coli , Espectrometría de Masas en Tándem , Espectrometría de Masas en Tándem/métodos , Cromatografía de Gases y Espectrometría de Masas/métodos , Escherichia coli/metabolismo , Isótopos de Carbono/análisis , Isótopos de Carbono/metabolismo , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Aminoácidos/metabolismoRESUMEN
Metabolic fluxes, the number of metabolites traversing each biochemical reaction in a cell per unit time, are crucial for assessing and understanding cell function. 13C Metabolic Flux Analysis (13C MFA) is considered to be the gold standard for measuring metabolic fluxes. 13C MFA typically works by leveraging extracellular exchange fluxes as well as data from 13C labeling experiments to calculate the flux profile which best fit the data for a small, central carbon, metabolic model. However, the nonlinear nature of the 13C MFA fitting procedure means that several flux profiles fit the experimental data within the experimental error, and traditional optimization methods offer only a partial or skewed picture, especially in "non-gaussian" situations where multiple very distinct flux regions fit the data equally well. Here, we present a method for flux space sampling through Bayesian inference (BayFlux), that identifies the full distribution of fluxes compatible with experimental data for a comprehensive genome-scale model. This Bayesian approach allows us to accurately quantify uncertainty in calculated fluxes. We also find that, surprisingly, the genome-scale model of metabolism produces narrower flux distributions (reduced uncertainty) than the small core metabolic models traditionally used in 13C MFA. The different results for some reactions when using genome-scale models vs core metabolic models advise caution in assuming strong inferences from 13C MFA since the results may depend significantly on the completeness of the model used. Based on BayFlux, we developed and evaluated novel methods (P-13C MOMA and P-13C ROOM) to predict the biological results of a gene knockout, that improve on the traditional MOMA and ROOM methods by quantifying prediction uncertainty.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Modelos Biológicos , Teorema de Bayes , Incertidumbre , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Isótopos de Carbono/metabolismoRESUMEN
Elementary flux modes (EFMs) are minimal, steady state pathways characterizing a flux network. Fundamentally, all steady state fluxes in a network are decomposable into a linear combination of EFMs. While there is typically no unique set of EFM weights that reconstructs these fluxes, several optimization-based methods have been proposed to constrain the solution space by enforcing some notion of parsimony. However, it has long been recognized that optimization-based approaches may fail to uniquely identify EFM weights and return different feasible solutions across objective functions and solvers. Here we show that, for flux networks only involving single molecule transformations, these problems can be avoided by imposing a Markovian constraint on EFM weights. Our Markovian constraint guarantees a unique solution to the flux decomposition problem, and that solution is arguably more biophysically plausible than other solutions. We describe an algorithm for computing Markovian EFM weights via steady state analysis of a certain discrete-time Markov chain, based on the flux network, which we call the cycle-history Markov chain. We demonstrate our method with a differential analysis of EFM activity in a lipid metabolic network comparing healthy and Alzheimer's disease patients. Our method is the first to uniquely decompose steady state fluxes into EFM weights for any unimolecular metabolic network.
Asunto(s)
Escherichia coli , Modelos Biológicos , Humanos , Escherichia coli/metabolismo , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Algoritmos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodosRESUMEN
MOTIVATION: Flux balance analysis (FBA) is widely recognized as an important method for studying metabolic networks. When incorporating flux measurements of certain reactions into an FBA problem, it is possible that the underlying linear program may become infeasible, e.g. due to measurement or modeling inaccuracies. Furthermore, while the biomass reaction is of central importance in FBA models, its stoichiometry is often a rough estimate and a source of high uncertainty. RESULTS: In this work, we present a method that allows modifications to the biomass reaction stoichiometry as a means to (i) render the FBA problem feasible and (ii) improve the accuracy of the model by corrections in the biomass composition. Optionally, the adjustment of the biomass composition can be used in conjunction with a previously introduced approach for balancing inconsistent fluxes to obtain a feasible FBA system. We demonstrate the value of our approach by analyzing realistic flux measurements of E.coli. In particular, we find that the growth-associated maintenance (GAM) demand of ATP, which is typically integrated with the biomass reaction, is likely overestimated in recent genome-scale models, at least for certain growth conditions. In light of these findings, we discuss issues related to the determination and inclusion of GAM values in constraint-based models. Overall, our method can uncover potential errors and suggest adjustments in the assumed biomass composition in FBA models based on inconsistencies between the model and measured fluxes. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The developed method has been implemented in our software tool CNApy available from https://github.com/cnapy-org/CNApy.
Asunto(s)
Modelos Biológicos , Programas Informáticos , Biomasa , Escherichia coli/genética , Genoma , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodosRESUMEN
The modeling of rates of biochemical reactions-fluxes-in metabolic networks is widely used for both basic biological research and biotechnological applications. A number of different modeling methods have been developed to estimate and predict fluxes, including kinetic and constraint-based (Metabolic Flux Analysis and flux balance analysis) approaches. Although different resources exist for teaching these methods individually, to-date no resources have been developed to teach these approaches in an integrative way that equips learners with an understanding of each modeling paradigm, how they relate to one another, and the information that can be gleaned from each. We have developed a series of modeling simulations in Python to teach kinetic modeling, metabolic control analysis, 13C-metabolic flux analysis, and flux balance analysis. These simulations are presented in a series of interactive notebooks with guided lesson plans and associated lecture notes. Learners assimilate key principles using models of simple metabolic networks by running simulations, generating and using data, and making and validating predictions about the effects of modifying model parameters. We used these simulations as the hands-on computer laboratory component of a four-day metabolic modeling workshop and participant survey results showed improvements in learners' self-assessed competence and confidence in understanding and applying metabolic modeling techniques after having attended the workshop. The resources provided can be incorporated in their entirety or individually into courses and workshops on bioengineering and metabolic modeling at the undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate level.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Humanos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Cinética , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
13C metabolic flux analysis is a powerful tool for metabolism characterization in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. However, the widespread adoption of this tool is hindered by limited software availability and computational efficiency. Currently, the most widely accepted 13C-flux tools, such as INCA and 13CFLUX2, are developed in a closed-source environment. While several open-source packages or software are available, they are either computationally inefficient or only suitable for flux estimation at isotopic steady state. To address the need for a time-efficient computational tool for the more complicated flux analysis at an isotopically nonstationary state, especially for understanding the single-carbon substrate metabolism, we present FreeFlux. FreeFlux is an open-source Python package that performs labeling pattern simulation and flux analysis at both isotopic steady state and transient state, enabling a more comprehensive analysis of cellular metabolism. FreeFlux provides a set of interfaces to manipulate the objects abstracted from a labeling experiment and computational process, making it easy to integrate into other programs or pipelines. The flux estimation by FreeFlux is fast and reliable, and its validity has been confirmed by comparison with results from other computational tools using both synthetic and experimental data. FreeFlux is freely available at https://github.com/Chaowu88/freeflux with a detailed online tutorial and documentation provided at https://freeflux.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Programas Informáticos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Isótopos de Carbono/química , Simulación por Computador , Ingeniería MetabólicaRESUMEN
In this study, a mixed-cultural metabolic network for anaerobic digestion that included the concept of a "universal bacterium" was constructed, and metabolic flux analysis (MFA) applying this network was conducted to evaluate the flow of electrons and materials during H2 fermentation under various conditions. The MFA results from two H2 fermenters feeding glucose with (GP) or without (GA) the addition of peptone suggest that hydraulic retention time (HRT) presents a significant impact on hydrogen production, and the reversed trends could be observed at HRTs below and above 4 h. From the MFA results of lactate/acetate-fed H2 fermenter, the highest flux of H2 production is associated with more significant acetate consumption and the following pathways toward the anaplerotic reactions cycle that produces NADH. The occurrence of acetogenesis in the H2 fermenters using various types of bioethanol-fermented residues (BEFRs) was also identified according to the MFA results. By analyzing the MFA results of all 49 sets of data from H2 fermenters via Pearson's correlation, it was revealed that the flux of H2 production positively correlates to the reduction of ferredoxin with pyruvate oxidation, acetate formation, and acetate emission when lactate was produced in the system. On the contrary, negative relationships were found between the flux of H2 production and these three fluxes. The extended application of MFA provides additional information, including the fluxes between intracellular metabolites, and the information has the potential to be used in decision-making systems during the future operation of anaerobic processes by connecting operational parameters.
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Hidrógeno , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Fermentación , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Anaerobiosis , Hidrógeno/metabolismo , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , AcetatosRESUMEN
Rhodococcus opacus is a bacterium that has a high tolerance to aromatic compounds and can produce significant amounts of triacylglycerol (TAG). Here, we present iGR1773, the first genome-scale model (GSM) of R. opacus PD630 metabolism based on its genomic sequence and associated data. The model includes 1773 genes, 3025 reactions, and 1956 metabolites, was developed in a reproducible manner using CarveMe, and was evaluated through Metabolic Model tests (MEMOTE). We combine the model with two Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) methods that use transcriptomics data to predict growth rates and fluxes: E-Flux2 and SPOT (Simplified Pearson Correlation with Transcriptomic data). Growth rates are best predicted by E-Flux2. Flux profiles are more accurately predicted by E-Flux2 than flux balance analysis (FBA) and parsimonious FBA (pFBA), when compared to 44 central carbon fluxes measured by 13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis (13C-MFA). Under glucose-fed conditions, E-Flux2 presents an R2 value of 0.54, while predictions based on pFBA had an inferior R2 of 0.28. We attribute this improved performance to the extra activity information provided by the transcriptomics data. For phenol-fed metabolism, in which the substrate first enters the TCA cycle, E-Flux2's flux predictions display a high R2 of 0.96 while pFBA showed an R2 of 0.93. We also show that glucose metabolism and phenol metabolism function with similar relative ATP maintenance costs. These findings demonstrate that iGR1773 can help the metabolic engineering community predict aromatic substrate utilization patterns and perform computational strain design.
Asunto(s)
Ingeniería Metabólica , Rhodococcus , Ingeniería Metabólica/métodos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Rhodococcus/genética , Rhodococcus/metabolismo , Fenoles/metabolismoRESUMEN
Metabolic engineering has served as a systematic discipline for industrial biotechnology as it has offered systematic tools and methods for strain development and bioprocess optimization. Because these metabolic engineering tools and methods are concerned with the biological network of a cell with emphasis on metabolic network, they have also been applied to a range of medical problems where better understanding of metabolism has also been perceived to be important. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is a unique systematic approach initially developed in the metabolic engineering community, and has proved its usefulness and potential when addressing a range of medical problems. In this regard, this review discusses the contribution of MFA to addressing medical problems. For this, we i) provide overview of the milestones of MFA, ii) define two main branches of MFA, namely constraint-based reconstruction and analysis (COBRA) and isotope-based MFA (iMFA), and iii) present successful examples of their medical applications, including characterizing the metabolism of diseased cells and pathogens, and identifying effective drug targets. Finally, synergistic interactions between metabolic engineering and biomedical sciences are discussed with respect to MFA.
Asunto(s)
Ingeniería Metabólica , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Ingeniería Metabólica/métodos , Biotecnología , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Isótopos de Carbono/metabolismo , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
MOTIVATION: The accurate prediction of complex phenotypes such as metabolic fluxes in living systems is a grand challenge for systems biology and central to efficiently identifying biotechnological interventions that can address pressing industrial needs. The application of gene expression data to improve the accuracy of metabolic flux predictions using mechanistic modeling methods such as flux balance analysis (FBA) has not been previously demonstrated in multi-tissue systems, despite their biotechnological importance. We hypothesized that a method for generating metabolic flux predictions informed by relative expression levels between tissues would improve prediction accuracy. RESULTS: Relative gene expression levels derived from multiple transcriptomic and proteomic datasets were integrated into FBA predictions of a multi-tissue, diel model of Arabidopsis thaliana's central metabolism. This integration dramatically improved the agreement of flux predictions with experimentally based flux maps from 13C metabolic flux analysis compared with a standard parsimonious FBA approach. Disagreement between FBA predictions and MFA flux maps was measured using weighted averaged percent error values, and for parsimonious FBA this was169%-180% for high light conditions and 94%-103% for low light conditions, depending on the gene expression dataset used. This fell to 10%-13% and 9%-11% upon incorporating expression data into the modeling process, which also substantially altered the predicted carbon and energy economy of the plant. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Code and data generated as part of this study are available from https://github.com/Gibberella/ArabidopsisGeneExpressionWeights.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Proteómica , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Biología de Sistemas , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Transcriptoma , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
Isotope-assisted metabolic flux analysis (iMFA) is a powerful method to mathematically determine the metabolic fluxome from experimental isotope labeling data and a metabolic network model. While iMFA was originally developed for industrial biotechnological applications, it is increasingly used to analyze eukaryotic cell metabolism in physiological and pathological states. In this review, we explain how iMFA estimates the intracellular fluxome, including data and network model (inputs), the optimization-based data fitting (process), and the flux map (output). We then describe how iMFA enables analysis of metabolic complexities and discovery of metabolic pathways. Our goal is to expand the use of iMFA in metabolism research, which is essential to maximizing the impact of metabolic experiments and continuing to advance iMFA and biocomputational techniques.
Asunto(s)
Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos , Redes y Vías Metabólicas , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Isótopos , Marcaje Isotópico/métodos , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
Carbon isotope labeling method is a standard metabolic engineering tool for flux quantification in living cells. To cope with the high dimensionality of isotope labeling systems, diverse algorithms have been developed to reduce the number of variables or operations in metabolic flux analysis (MFA), but lacks generalizability to non-stationary metabolic conditions. In this study, we present a stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) derived from the chemical master equation of the isotope labeling system. This algorithm allows to compute the time evolution of isotopomer concentrations in non-stationary conditions, with the valuable property that computational time does not scale with the number of isotopomers. The efficiency and limitations of the algorithm is benchmarked for the forward and inverse problems of 13C-DMFA in the pentose phosphate pathways, and is compared with EMU-based methods for NMFA and MFA including the central carbon metabolism. Overall, SSA constitutes an alternative class to deterministic approaches for metabolic flux analysis that is well adapted to comprehensive dataset including parallel labeling experiments, and whose limitations associated to the sampling size can be overcome by using Monte Carlo sampling approaches.
Asunto(s)
Algoritmos , Carbono , Simulación por Computador , Isótopos de Carbono/metabolismo , Vía de Pentosa Fosfato , Análisis de Flujos Metabólicos/métodos , Marcaje Isotópico/métodos , Modelos BiológicosRESUMEN
Introduction: Supplementation with increased inspired oxygen fractions has been suggested to alleviate the harmful effects of tissue hypoxia during hemorrhagic shock (HS) and traumatic brain injury. However, the utility of therapeutic hyperoxia in critical care is disputed to this day as controversial evidence is available regarding its efficacy. Furthermore, in contrast to its hypoxic counterpart, the effect of hyperoxia on the metabolism of circulating immune cells remains ambiguous. Both stimulating and detrimental effects are possible; the former by providing necessary oxygen supply, the latter by generation of excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS). To uncover the potential impact of increased oxygen fractions on circulating immune cells during intensive care, we have performed a 13C-metabolic flux analysis (MFA) on PBMCs and granulocytes isolated from two long-term, resuscitated models of combined acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) and HS in pigs with and without cardiovascular comorbidity. Methods: Swine underwent resuscitation after 2 h of ASDH and HS up to a maximum of 48 h after HS. Animals received normoxemia (PaO2 = 80 - 120 mmHg) or targeted hyperoxemia (PaO2 = 200 - 250 mmHg for 24 h after treatment initiation, thereafter PaO2 as in the control group). Blood was drawn at time points T1 = after instrumentation, T2 = 24 h post ASDH and HS, and T3 = 48 h post ASDH and HS. PBMCs and granulocytes were isolated from whole blood to perform electron spin resonance spectroscopy, high resolution respirometry and 13C-MFA. For the latter, we utilized a parallel tracer approach with 1,2-13C2 glucose, U-13C glucose, and U-13C glutamine, which covered essential pathways of glucose and glutamine metabolism and supplied redundant data for robust Bayesian estimation. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry further provided multiple fragments of metabolites which yielded additional labeling information. We obtained precise estimations of the fluxes, their joint credibility intervals, and their relations, and characterized common metabolic patterns with principal component analysis (PCA). Results: 13C-MFA indicated a hyperoxia-mediated reduction in tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activity in circulating granulocytes which encompassed fluxes of glutamine uptake, TCA cycle, and oxaloacetate/aspartate supply for biosynthetic processes. We further detected elevated superoxide levels in the swine strain characterized by a hypercholesterolemic phenotype. PCA revealed cell type-specific behavioral patterns of metabolic adaptation in response to ASDH and HS that acted irrespective of swine strains or treatment group. Conclusion: In a model of resuscitated porcine ASDH and HS, we saw that ventilation with increased inspiratory O2 concentrations (PaO2 = 200 - 250 mmHg for 24 h after treatment initiation) did not impact mitochondrial respiration of PBMCs or granulocytes. However, Bayesian 13C-MFA results indicated a reduction in TCA cycle activity in granulocytes compared to cells exposed to normoxemia in the same time period. This change in metabolism did not seem to affect granulocytes' ability to perform phagocytosis or produce superoxide radicals.