Mingran Zhang, Junling Ma, Roderick Edwards, Meili Li
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
We use mathematical modeling to study the proliferation dynamics of CD4+ T cells within an immune response. This proliferation is driven by the autocrine reaction of helper T cells and interleukin-2 (IL-2), and regulated by natural regulatory T cells (nTregs). Previous studies suggested that a fratricidal mechanism is necessary to eliminate helper T cells post-infection. Contrary to this, our mathematical analysis establishes that the depletion of these cells is due to two pivotal factors: the saturation in the proliferation rate of helper CD4+ T cells at high IL-2 concentrations, and the activation rate of nTregs outpacing their death rate. This yields an excitable process, such that the proliferation starts once the helper T cell population passes a threshold. Additionally, we find that when the proliferation of nTregs lags behind their mortality, induced regulatory T cells (iTregs) are crucial to curbing the proliferation of helper CD4+ T cells.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Biological Dynamics, an open access journal, publishes state of the art papers dealing with the analysis of dynamic models that arise from biological processes. The Journal focuses on dynamic phenomena at scales ranging from the level of individual organisms to that of populations, communities, and ecosystems in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, population dynamics, epidemiology, immunology, neuroscience, environmental science, and animal behavior. Papers in other areas are acceptable at the editors’ discretion. In addition to papers that analyze original mathematical models and develop new theories and analytic methods, the Journal welcomes papers that connect mathematical modeling and analysis to experimental and observational data. The Journal also publishes short notes, expository and review articles, book reviews and a section on open problems.