TITLE:
Using a Collateral Damage Model to Explain Survival Data in West Nile Virus Infections
AUTHORS:
James K. Peterson, Alison M. Kesson, Nicholas J. C. King
KEYWORDS:
Auto Immune Responses, West Nile Virus, Host Survival Models, MHC-I Upregulation, IFN-γ Upregulation, Free Antigen Levels
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.6 No.4,
April
7,
2016
ABSTRACT: Simulation code for a model of the
adaptive immune response seen in flavivirus infections is used to explain the
immunopathological consequences seen in West Nile Virus virus (WNV) infections.
We use a model that specifically handles the differences in how the virus
infects resting cells, the G0 state, versus dividing cells, the G1 state, which
includes vastly increased MHC-I upregulation for resting cells over dividing
cells. The simulation suggests how the infection progresses in a one host model
and the results shed insight into the unusual survival curve data obtained for
this infection: there is an increase in health even though viral load has
increased.