Simulation model for Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroiditis disease

[helvella]

Way above my head - in every direction!

The relevance is, I feel, very much that someone is looking. Hypotheses are being examined. And the tools of mathematics are being applied.

We can all see petrol will burn if you light a dish of it. But modern, high-efficiency/high-performance engines work as well as they do because extremely sophisticated mathematical techniques have been applied to the issue.

That is, we might be fairly convinced of a gut/thyroid connection in Hashimoto's but seeing more than that needs a lot of detailed work. Hopefully, this paper, the model developed, and work by others, will result in an understanding which enables us to see how to address the issues.

Simulation model for Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroiditis disease

Marcela Salazar-Viedma 1 , Juan Gabriel Vergaño-Salazar 2 , Luis Pastenes 1 3 , Vivian D'Afonseca 4

Affiliations

• PMID: 34496027

• DOI: 10.1210/endocr/bqab190

Abstract

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (HT) is a pathology which often causes a gradual thyroid insufficiency in affected patients due to the autoimmune destruction of this gland. The cellular immune response mediated by T helper lymphocytes TH1 and TH17 can induce the HT disease. In this pathologic condition, there is an imbalance between the TH17 and Treg lymphocytes as well as a gut microbiota dysfunction. The objective of this work was to describe the interactions of the cell subpopulations that participate in HT. To achieve this goal, we generated a mathematical model that allowed the simulation of different scenarios for the dynamic interaction between thyroid cells, the immune system, and the gut microbiota. We used a hypothetical-deductive design of mathematical modeling based on a system of ordinary differential equations, where the state variables are the TH1, TH17 and Treg lymphocytes, the thyrocytes and the bacteria from gut microbiota. This work generated a compartmental model of the cellular immune response occurring in the thyroid gland. It was observed that TH1 and TH17 lymphocytes could increase the immune cells activity, as well as activate effector cells directly and trigger the apoptosis and inflammation processes of healthy thyrocytes indirectly. Likewise, the model showed that a reduction in Treg lymphocytes could increase the activity of TH17 lymphocytes when an imbalance of the gut microbiota composition occurred. The numerical results highlight the TH1, TH17 and bacterial balance of the gut microbiota activities as important factors for the development of Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroiditis disease.

Keywords: T helper cells; autoimmune hypothyroidism; dynamic systems; gut microbiota; mathematical modeling; thyrocytes.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/344...

Full paper available as a PDF - currently as an accepted manuscript (double-spaced and liable to be edited):

academic.oup.com/endo/advan...

[nellie237]

Chicken or Egg?

Gut microbiota dysfunction? or T helper lymphocytes?

Do the Doctors that treat us acknowledge that we are likely to have Gut microbiota dysfunction, or do they expect that Levo will rebalance it all?

Answer: They haven't got a clue have they?

[Edit; Just started reading this in full...........they should know......."The close relationship among the immune system, the gut microbiota and the mechanisms for

the generation of TH17 lymphocytes is well known."]

[helvella Administrator in reply to nellie237]

Treating hypothyroidism is all too often done without any understanding being apparent.

I can drive my car, I can fill up the petrol tank and windscreen washer, and check tyre pressures. But for pretty much anything else, I need someone who is much more knowledgeable.

It often appears that, whatever their skills in other areas, GPs are more like drivers than mechanics or engineers.

[nellie237 in reply to helvella]

Excellent analogy.

[Tythrop]

We need Prof Tim Specter (covid study and Zoe) to see this as he is heavily into gut microbes etc. How can we get it to him. He is very learned and has a lot of credibility.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Tythrop]

Zoe has just launched investigations into many other conditions.

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[Tythrop]

Yep. This is good. Tim Spector is high profile.. Books.. Media etc. Just thinking that he might bring "heft" to The Cause.