Screening candidate dyslipidemia agents

A method of screening a candidate dyslipidemia management agent for treating atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the method comprising:

• receiving non-invasively obtained data related to a plaque from each patient in a cohort of patients with known or suspected atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease;
• accessing a systems biology model of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, wherein
• the systems biology model includes disease-associated pathway activation data or disease-associated molecule levels, or both, for each pathway or molecule in the systems biology model, respectively;
• modifying the systems biology model using disease-associated pathway activation data or disease-associated molecule levels, or both, derived from the non-invasively obtained data from each patient in the cohort of patients to generate a patient-specific systems biology model for each of the patients in the cohort of patients;
• updating each of the patient-specific systems biology models with information relating to an effect on one or more lipoproteins by a candidate dyslipidemia management agent based on a known mechanism of action of the candidate dyslipidemia management agent;
• simulating a therapeutic response to the candidate dyslipidemia management agent in each of the patient-specific systems biology models for the cohort of patients to obtain a patient-specific simulated therapeutic effect in each of the patient-specific systems biology models;
• comparing a therapeutic effect in each of the patient-specific systems biology models for each patient in the cohort of patients before and after simulating the therapeutic response by the candidate dyslipidemia management agent;
• and
• quantifying a simulated therapeutic response by the agent at a cohort level.