Ganusov Vitaly V, Antia Rustom
Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Theor Popul Biol. 2003 Sep;64(2):211-20. doi: 10.1016/s0040-5809(03)00063-7.
Models of the within-host dynamics of parasites have been used to consider the evolution of microparasites causing acute infections in vertebrate hosts. In this paper, we use these models to examine how the level of virulence to which a parasite evolves, depends on factors such as the relationship between parasite density and its rate of transmission from infected hosts, and the mechanism of parasite-induced pathogenesis. We show that changes in the terms describing transmissibility and pathogenesis may lead to dramatic differences in the level of virulence to which a parasite evolves. This suggests that no single factor is likely to be responsible for the differences in virulence of different parasites, and that understanding of the evolution of virulence of parasites will require a detailed quantitative understanding of the interaction between the parasite and its host.
寄生虫宿主内动态模型已被用于研究在脊椎动物宿主中引发急性感染的微寄生虫的进化。在本文中，我们使用这些模型来研究寄生虫进化出的毒力水平如何取决于诸如寄生虫密度与其从受感染宿主传播速率之间的关系以及寄生虫诱导发病机制等因素。我们表明，描述传播性和发病机制的术语变化可能导致寄生虫进化出的毒力水平出现巨大差异。这表明，不太可能有单一因素导致不同寄生虫毒力的差异，并且对寄生虫毒力进化的理解将需要对寄生虫与其宿主之间的相互作用进行详细的定量理解。
