Targeting the Biophysical Properties of the Myeloma Initiating Cell Niches: A Pharmaceutical Synergism Analysis Using Multi-Scale Agent-based Modeling

Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/06/2020
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location
Communicore, C1-11

Jing Su, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine Targeting the Biophysical Properties of the Myeloma Initiating Cell Niches: A Pharmaceutical Synergism Analysis Using Multi-Scale Agent-based Modeling

Multiple myeloma, the second most common hematological cancer, is currently incurable due to refractory disease relapse and development of multiple drug resistance. We and others recently established the biophysical model that myeloma initiating (stem) cells (MICs) trigger the stiffening of their niches via SDF-1/CXCR4 paracrine; The stiffened niches then promote the colonogenesis of MICs and protect them from drug treatment. In this work we examined in silico the pharmaceutical potential of targeting MIC niche stiffness to facilitate cytotoxic chemotherapies. We first established a multi-scale agent-based model using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to recapitulate the niche stiffness centric, pro-oncogenetic positive feedback loop between MICs and myeloma-associated bone marrow stromal cells (MBMSCs), and investigated the effects of such intercellular chemo-physical communications on myeloma development. Then we used AMD3100 (to interrupt the interactions between MICs and their stroma) and Bortezomib (a recently developed novel therapeutic agent) as representative drugs to examine if the biophysical properties of myeloma niches are drugable. Results showed that our model recaptured the key experimental observation that the MBMSCs were more sensitive to SDF-1 secreted by MICs, and provided stiffer niches for these initiating cells and promoted their proliferation and drug resistance. Drug synergism analysis suggested that AMD3100 treatment undermined the capability of MICs to modulate the bone marrow microenvironment, and thus re-sensitized myeloma to Bortezomib treatments. This work is also the first attempt to virtually visualize in 3D the dynamics of the bone marrow stiffness during myeloma development. In summary, we established a multi-scale model to facilitate the translation of the niche-stiffness centric myeloma model as well as experimental observations to possible clinical applications. We concluded that targeting the biophysical properties of stem cell niches is of high clinical potential since it may re-sensitize tumor initiating cells to chemotherapies and reduce risks of cancer relapse.

Bio:
Dr. Su completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University in 2008. He is Assistant Professor at Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Division of Public Health Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dr. Su is a biomedical informatician and systems biologist. His research focuses on three closely related directions: biomedical informatics for precision medicines, graph theory and artificial intelligence in machine learning and biomedical big data mining, and systems biology of complex biosystems such as cancers and regenerative medicine devices. He is working on chronic complex diseases including cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, nephropathy, and cardiovascular diseases.