Targeted Drug Delivery / Smart Drug Delivery / Drug Targeting
Vahid Khandan; Bahar Firoozabadi; Mohammad Saeid Saeidi
Volume 8, Issue 3 , September 2014, , Pages 229-239
Abstract
A hallmark of Alzheimer disease (the most common type of dementia in the elderly) is the aggregation and deposition of toxic species ranging from small soluble oligomers to insoluble fibril plaques of Amyloid-Beta protein originates from the cleavage of APP by Beta and Gama Secretase (Amyloid Hypothesis). ...
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A hallmark of Alzheimer disease (the most common type of dementia in the elderly) is the aggregation and deposition of toxic species ranging from small soluble oligomers to insoluble fibril plaques of Amyloid-Beta protein originates from the cleavage of APP by Beta and Gama Secretase (Amyloid Hypothesis). An attractive therapeutic approach to treat AD is to identify small ligands capable of binding to A-Beta monomers and reverse its amyloidosis process. Here, a peptide drug having the sequence of GLMVG which has been derived from the C-terminal of A-Beta was used as breaker for a monomer of Beta sheet rich structure. The combination of Docking and Molecular Dynamics methods were used for simulation of drug-receptor interaction. This simulation implied that pentapeptide altered secondary structure of A-Beta monomer and declined its stability. This study proved that pentapeptide is capable to reverse Beta-sheet formation and can be considered as an AD drug in other preclinical studies.
Biomimetics
Mohammad Reza Nikmaneshi; Bahar Firoozabadi; Mohammad Saeid Saeidi
Volume 7, Issue 2 , June 2013, , Pages 97-105
Abstract
The front part of a cell is divided to two regions called lamellum and lamellipodium (lamellipodial). Internal flows in this part plays an essential role for cell migration. Indeed, there are many protein filaments called actin in lamellum and lamellipodium, which induce the cell motion with polymerization ...
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The front part of a cell is divided to two regions called lamellum and lamellipodium (lamellipodial). Internal flows in this part plays an essential role for cell migration. Indeed, there are many protein filaments called actin in lamellum and lamellipodium, which induce the cell motion with polymerization in the leading edge of the cell. The actin filaments adhere to the extracellular matrix (ECM) by means of focal adhesions and they have contact by myosin motor proteins. The myosin motor proteins cause actin retrograde and anterograde flow exerted contractile stress on them. The focal adhesions exert frictional stress on the actin filaments. In this work, we developed a two-dimensional continuum model of the fanshaped lamellipodial to obtain the actin retrograde flow. In addition, the actin filaments are assumed as a highly viscous Newtonian fluid. We also investigated the effects of the myosin distribution and cell speed on the actin flow. Our results include actin flow and myosin distribution in the moving cell, and we also illustrate their relation together. These results accord to reported experimentally and numerically data, and are verified with them.
Biological Computer Modeling / Biological Computer Simulation
Hosein Ghasemi; Mohammad Saeid Saeidi; Bahar Firoozabadi
Volume 7, Issue 3 , June 2013, , Pages 255-264
Abstract
Knowledge regarding particle deposition processes in the pulmonary system is important in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology applications. The present work describes a computational model of human lung airway consisting of the three-generation pathway from the trachea down to segmental bronchi. ...
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Knowledge regarding particle deposition processes in the pulmonary system is important in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology applications. The present work describes a computational model of human lung airway consisting of the three-generation pathway from the trachea down to segmental bronchi. In order to more appropriately model human air passage, an asymmetric geometry (i.e. three generation airway) is extracted from the 1th to 3th branches of the Hoursfield model and on dealing with the complexities of simulations (e.g. computation time) structured mesh is developed which also leads to more accurate computations. The fully three-dimensional incompressible laminar Navier– Stokes equations and continuity equation have been solved using CFD home code on generated mesh. Computations are carried out in the Reynolds number range of 800–1800, corresponding to mouthair breathing rates ranging from 0.18 to 0.41 l/s, representative. The study leads to establishing relations for overall particle deposition efficiency in the second generation of bronchial tree as a function of two dimensionless groups of Reynolds and Stocks numbers. Furthermore, interpretation of correlations are enlightened the fact of that in the initial generations of bronchial trees, consideration of asymmetric geometry has a significant influence on the particle deposition pattern. The results of the paper are valuable in aerosol therapy and inhalation toxicology.
Cardiovascular Biomechanics
Mehdi Molaei; Mohammad Saeid Saeidi; Bahar Firoozabadi
Volume 5, Issue 4 , June 2011, , Pages 279-288
Abstract
Study of Physiological Parameters of the Cardiovascular System by One Dimensional and Numerical Simulation. Owning to important role of the cardiovascular system in the human body and increase of cardiovascular diseases from day to day, in this study, we try to simulate a system of arteries by using ...
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Study of Physiological Parameters of the Cardiovascular System by One Dimensional and Numerical Simulation. Owning to important role of the cardiovascular system in the human body and increase of cardiovascular diseases from day to day, in this study, we try to simulate a system of arteries by using one dimensional numerical modeling. For the first time in the one dimensional simulation, we use the finite volume method for discretization of Navier-Stocks equations coupled with the state equation. In order to develop the outflow boundary condition, we use a kind of lumped model called arteriole structure tree. Results of this study are verified by results of other one dimensional modeling such as the characteristic method and are showed that finite volume method is able to demonstrate characteristic of blood flow in arteries. Normal pressure and flow profiles in main systemic arteries are determined, and it is founded that the pressure profile becomes steeper with distance from the heart, which is in agreement with physiological patterns. Furthermore, we can show that when elasticity of arteries is increased in arterioscleroses disease, systolic pressure increases, yet diastolic pressure decreases. Finally, according to available results, it is clear that the finite volume method is useful to simulate numerically and one dimensionally the cardiovascular system.
