International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article A Role of Inflammation and Immunity in Essential Hypertension—Modeled and Analyzed Using Petri Nets Dorota Formanowicz 1 , Agnieszka Rybarczyk 2,3 , Marcin Radom 2,3 and Piotr Formanowicz 2,3,* 1 Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznan, Poland;
[email protected] 2 Institute of Computing Science, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan, Poland;
[email protected] (A.R.);
[email protected] (M.R.) 3 Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, 61-704 Poznan, Poland * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 15 April 2020; Accepted: 5 May 2020; Published: 9 May 2020 Abstract: Recent studies have shown that the innate and adaptive immune system, together with low-grade inflammation, may play an important role in essential hypertension. In this work, to verify the importance of selected factors for the development of essential hypertension, we created a Petri net-based model and analyzed it. The analysis was based mainly on t-invariants, knockouts of selected fragments of the net and its simulations. The blockade of the renin-angiotensin (RAA) system revealed that the most significant effect on the emergence of essential hypertension has RAA activation. This blockade affects: (1) the formation of angiotensin II, (2) inflammatory process (by influencing C-reactive protein (CRP)), (3) the initiation of blood coagulation, (4) bradykinin generation via the kallikrein-kinin system, (5) activation of lymphocytes in hypertension, (6) the participation of TNF alpha in the activation of the acute phase response, and (7) activation of NADPH oxidase—a key enzyme of oxidative stress.