Camacho E T, Melara L A, Villalobos M C, Wirkus S
School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, 85306, USA.
Bull Math Biol. 2014 Feb;76(2):292-313. doi: 10.1007/s11538-013-9919-1. Epub 2013 Nov 21.
Numerous therapies have been implemented in an effort to minimize the debilitating effects of the degenerative eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), yet none have provided satisfactory long-term solution. To date there is no treatment that can halt the degeneration of photoreceptors. The recent discovery of the RdCVF protein has provided researchers with a potential therapy that could slow the secondary wave of cone death. In this work, we build on an existing mathematical model of photoreceptor interactions in the presence of RP and incorporate various treatment regiments via RdCVF. Our results show that an optimal control exists for the administration of RdCVF. In addition, our numerical solutions show the experimentally observed rescue effect that the RdCVF has on the cones.
为了尽量减少退行性眼病视网膜色素变性（RP）的致残影响，人们已经实施了多种治疗方法，但尚无一种能提供令人满意的长期解决方案。迄今为止，尚无治疗方法能够阻止光感受器的退化。RdCVF蛋白的最新发现为研究人员提供了一种可能减缓视锥细胞死亡继发波的潜在疗法。在这项工作中，我们基于现有的存在RP情况下光感受器相互作用的数学模型，并通过RdCVF纳入各种治疗方案。我们的结果表明，RdCVF的给药存在最优控制。此外，我们的数值解显示了实验观察到的RdCVF对视锥细胞的挽救作用。
