In general, every workflow starts with loading a simulation by calling the loadSimulation() function. The function receives the full path to the *.pkml file format exported from PK-Sim or MoBi, and returns the corresponding simulation object.

library(ospsuite)
#> Loaded Common Language Runtime version 4.0.30319.42000

simFilePath <- system.file("extdata", "Aciclovir.pkml", package = "ospsuite")

sim <- loadSimulation(simFilePath)

Accessing entities of the model and their properties - the path concept

Once the simulation is loaded, it is possible to retrieve various entities of the model. The most important entities are containers, molecules, and parameters. The methods getContainer, getMolecule, and getParameter search for the respective entity with the given path located under a container. path is a string where the elements of the path (i.e., containers in the hierarchy of the simulation) are separated by |. container is an instance of the Container-class within the model structure the path is relative to. In most cases, container is the Simulation object created by calling loadSimulation(pkmlSimulationFile).

# Get the molecule Aciclovir located in kidney intracellular space
moleculeInKid <- getMolecule("Organism|Kidney|Intracellular|Aciclovir", sim)
print(moleculeInKid)
#> Molecule:
#>    Path: Organism|Kidney|Intracellular|Aciclovir
#>    Initial Value: 0.00 [µmol]

# Get the container "Liver"
livContainer <- getContainer("Organism|Liver", sim)
print(livContainer)
#> Container:
#>    Container type: Organ
#>    Path: Organism|Liver

# Get the parameter volume of the liver interstitial space
# Note that the path used is relative to the liver container
livParam <- getParameter("Interstitial|Volume", livContainer)
print(livParam)
#> Parameter:
#>    Path: Organism|Liver|Interstitial|Volume
#>    Value: 0.35 [l]
#>    isFormula: TRUE
#>    formula: f_int*V
#>    Value overrides formula: FALSE
#>    isStateVariable: FALSE

The functions getAllContainersMatching(), getAllMoleculesMatching(), and getAllParametersMatching() return a list of objects representing all entities whose paths match the generic paths provided in the list paths located under container. Generic paths are constructed by using the wildcard symbols * (exactly one occurrence of any element) or ** (zero or more occurrences of any element).

# Get the parameter Volume of the intracellular space of all organs,
# with exactly one path element before Intracellular
volumeParams <- getAllParametersMatching("Organism|*|Intracellular|Volume", sim)
length(volumeParams)
#> [1] 15
# The PBPK model has 15 organs with an "Intracellular" sub-compartment

# Get the parameter Volume of the intracellular space of all organs,
# no matter how many sub-containers the organ has
volumeParams <- getAllParametersMatching("Organism|**|Intracellular|Volume", sim)
length(volumeParams)
#> [1] 28
# The list also includes parameters of organs like "Liver|Periportal",
# or the mucosal compartments of the intestine.

Note that the path "Organism|Kidney|*|Intracellular|Volume" will return no parameters in the standard models, as there are no sub-containers between Kidney and Intracellular. In contrast, "Organism|Kidney|**|Intracellular|Volume" is a valid path.

The functions getAllContainersMatching(), getAllMoleculesMatching(), and getAllParametersMatching() can also be used to retrieve entities from multiple paths:

# Get the molecule Aciclovir located in Liver|Periportal|Intracellular and VenousBlood|Plasma
molecules <- getAllMoleculesMatching(c(
"Organism|VenousBlood|Plasma|Aciclovir",
"Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir"
), sim)
print(molecules)
#> [[1]]
#> Molecule:
#>    Path: Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir
#>    Initial Value: 0.00 [µmol]
#>
#> [[2]]
#> Molecule:
#>    Path: Organism|VenousBlood|Plasma|Aciclovir
#>    Initial Value: 0.00 [µmol]

The entities possess various properties that can be accessed through their objects. The most important properties for a container are:

# Path of the container
livContainer$path #> [1] "Organism|Liver" # Parent container livContainer$parentContainer
#> Container:
#>    Container type: Organism
#>    Path: Organism

The most important properties for a molecule are:

# Initial value of the molecule
moleculeInKid$value #> [1] 0 # Dimension of the molecule. See section "Unit conversion" for more information. moleculeInKid$dimension
#> [1] "Amount"

# Is the initial value defined by a formula?
moleculeInKid$isFormula #> [1] FALSE # Type of the formula. CONSTANT if the value is defined by a constant. moleculeInKid$formula
#> Formula:
#>    isConstant: TRUE

The most important properties for a parameter are:

# Initial value of the parameter
livParam$value #> [1] 0.3533005 # Dimension of the parameter. See section "Unit conversion" for more information. livParam$dimension
#> [1] "Volume"

# Base unit of the parameter. See section "Unit conversion" for more information.
livParam$unit #> [1] "l" # Is the initial value defined by a formula? livParam$isFormula
#> [1] TRUE

# Type of the formula. CONSTANT if the value is defined by a constant.
livParam$formula #> Formula: #> isFormula: TRUE #> formula: f_int*V Loading simulation tree A convenient way to traverse the simulation structure is given by the method getSimulationTree. The method generates a tree-like list of all paths within the simulation. Each element of the tree contains all the sub-containers of the element. The final elements are strings representing the path to the entity. # Load simulation simFilePath <- system.file("extdata", "Aciclovir.pkml", package = "ospsuite") sim <- loadSimulation(simFilePath) # Create simulation tree simTree <- getSimulationTree(sim) # Calling simTree would list all entities within the simulation # (given how long this tree can be, we will skip it here, but you can try # running the following command in your console) # simTree # Accessing the parameter "Organism|Weight" simTree$Organism$Weight #>$path
#> [1] "Organism|Weight"

# Getting all entities located under "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular"
entitiesList <- simTree$Organism$Liver$Periportal$Intracellular
entitiesList
#> $Volume of protein container #>$Volume of protein container$path #> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Volume of protein container" #> #> #>$Volume
#> $Volume$path
#> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Volume"
#>
#>
#> $pH #>$pH$path #> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|pH" #> #> #>$Aciclovir
#> $Aciclovir$path
#> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir"
#>
#> $Aciclovir$Concentration
#> $Aciclovir$Concentration$path #> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir|Concentration" #> #> #>$Aciclovir$Partition coefficient (water/container) #>$Aciclovir$Partition coefficient (water/container)$path
#> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir|Partition coefficient (water/container)"
#>
#>
#> $Aciclovir$Concentration in container
#> $Aciclovir$Concentration in container\$path
#> [1] "Organism|Liver|Periportal|Intracellular|Aciclovir|Concentration in container"