Work

Saturation Effects on T-cell Activation in a Model of a Multi-stage Pathogen

Year: 2013

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: In previous work, we studied host response to a pathogen which uses a cycle of immunologically distinct stages to establish and maintain infection. We showed that for generic parameter values, the system has a unique biologically meaningful stable fixed point. That paper used a simplified model of T-cell activation, making proliferation depend linearly on antigen-T-cell encounters. Here we generalize the way in which T-cell proliferation depends on the sizes of the antigenic populations. In particular, we allow this response to become saturated at high levels of antigen. As a result, we show that this family of generalized models shares the same steady-state behavior properties with the simpler model contemplated in our previous work.

Source: International Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Biology (BIOMAT)

DOI: 10.1142/9789814520829_0009

Authors: MICHAEL SHAPIRO, EDGAR DELGADO-ECKERT

Institutions: Tufts University, University of Basel, University Children’s Hospital Basel

Language: English

Topic: Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institutes of Health