McQueen Philip G
Mathematical and Statistical Computing Laboratory, Division of Computational Bioscience, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, 12 South Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-5620 USA.
Biophys Rev. 2010 Aug;2(3):111-120. doi: 10.1007/s12551-010-0034-3. Epub 2010 Aug 10.
Building a mathematical model of population dynamics of pathogens within their host involves considerations of factors similar to those in ecology, as pathogens can prey on cells in the host. But within the multicellular host, attacked cell types are integrated with other cellular systems, which in turn intervene in the infection. For example, immune responses attempt to sense and then eliminate or contain pathogens, and homeostatic mechanisms try to compensate for cell loss. This review focuses on modeling applied to malarias, diseases caused by single-cell eukaryote parasites that infect red blood cells, with special concern given to vivax malaria, a disease often thought to be benign (if sometimes incapacitating) because the parasite only attacks a small proportion of red blood cells, the very youngest ones. However, I will use mathematical modeling to argue that depletion of this pool of red blood cells can be disastrous to the host if growth of the parasite is not vigorously check by host immune responses. Also, modeling can elucidate aspects of new field observations that indicate that vivax malaria is more dangerous than previously thought. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12551-010-0034-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
构建病原体在宿主体内的种群动态数学模型，涉及到与生态学中类似因素的考量，因为病原体可以捕食宿主体内的细胞。但在多细胞宿主体内，受攻击的细胞类型会与其他细胞系统相互整合，进而干预感染过程。例如，免疫反应试图感知并随后清除或控制病原体，而稳态机制则试图补偿细胞损失。本综述聚焦于应用于疟疾的建模，疟疾是由感染红细胞的单细胞真核寄生虫引起的疾病，特别关注间日疟，这种疾病通常被认为是良性的（如果有时会使人丧失能力），因为寄生虫只攻击一小部分红细胞，即最年幼的红细胞。然而，我将通过数学建模论证，如果宿主的免疫反应不能有力地抑制寄生虫的生长，那么这部分红细胞储备的耗尽对宿主可能是灾难性的。此外，建模可以阐明新的实地观察结果的各个方面，这些结果表明间日疟比以前认为的更危险。电子补充材料：本文的在线版本（doi:10.1007/s12551-010-0034-3）包含补充材料，授权用户可以获取。
