Immune Response to a Variable Pathogen : A Stochastic Model with Two Interlocked Darwinian Entities

Abstract EN

This paper presents the modeling of a host immune system, more precisely the immune effector cell and immune memory cell population, and its interaction with an invading pathogen population.

It will tackle two issues of interest; on the one hand, in defining a stochastic model accounting for the inherent nature of organisms in population dynamics, namely multiplication with mutation and selection; on the other hand, in providing a description of pathogens that may vary their antigens through mutations during infection of the host.

Unlike most of the literature, which models the dynamics with first-order differential equations, this paper proposes a Galton-Watson type branching process to describe stochastically by whole distributions the population dynamics of pathogens and immune cells.

In the first model case, the pathogen of a given type is either eradicated or shows oscillatory chronic response.

In the second model case, the pathogen shows variational behavior changing its antigen resulting in a prolonged immune reaction.