Background Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe hypertensive disorder of pregnancy driven by placental dysfunction. A complex interplay of inflammatory, metabolic, and endothelial pathways regulates the transition from a healthy pregnancy to a pathological state. However, the systems-level dynamics and the mechanisms that the predisposing factors determine disease’s onset and progression remain to be uncovered.

Methodology An integrative systems biology approach was used to develop a representative PE time-aware network, using a temporal transcriptomic dataset from uncomplicated gestation. By mapping a curated PPI of PE onto normal placental DEGs, a dynamic, 30-node Boolean network model was constructed with rules curated from established signaling pathways. The main outcome that was used to represent a PE system state was the inactivation of eNOS. The model was used to identify stable cellular states (attractors) and to simulate the response to systemic conditions known to be involved in pathology, including inflammation, hypoxia, oxidative stress and metabolic overload (oxLDL). Complementary network diffusion analysis was performed expanding the PE-time-aware direct network to identify key propagating pathways from signals evoked in different gestational periods.

Results The model revealed that the network’s intrinsic dynamics converge towards an endothelial preserve function. Additionally, using the DEGs of normal gestation as initial state has shown to preserve eNOS activity. Pathological perturbations, however, drove the system into a stable attractor characterized by the loss of eNOS activity. Crucially, two etiologically distinct pathways to the vascular dysfunction were identified: i. an inflammatory NF-kB/TNF mediated which was triggered by either oxLDL or Inflammation inputs; and ii.a “direct vascular-driven” pathway by oxidative stress. Despite their different routes, both pathways were characterized by inactive AKT1. Perturbation experiments confirmed that AKT1 was the critical and main regulator of endothelial NOS function. While blocking upstream inflammation nodes did not prevent eNOS loss, the constitutive activation of AKT1 was consistent to maintain eNOS activity, superimposing any other pathological negative outcomes on vascular function.

Conclusion This work raises AKT1 as a pivotal node to maintain endothelial NOS activity, even in the presence of oxidative and inflammation conditions. The model developed provides a mechanistic basis for the clinical heterogeneity of PE. At least two distinct molecular pathways were identified as “routes” that primed the network to PE’s attractors, i.e.: inactivation of eNOS. Nevertheless, AKT1 failure or inactive state was a sine quo non condition to drive PE. The findings imply that therapeutic approaches, including metformin, which aim to support or improve AKT1 and its downstream signaling, may be effective in promoting vascular health in pregnancies at high risk.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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Expression Omnibus (GEO) under accession GSE9984 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE9984

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The model generated will be public available as soon as policies from The Cell Collective are met.

The model and the complete set of Boolean rules are available in the Supplementary Material. The source model used in this study will be publicly available on The Cell Collective platform following peer review and publication of this article.