Autor: |
Anet J N Anelone, Sarah K Spurgeon |
Jazyk: |
angličtina |
Rok vydání: |
2016 |
Předmět: |
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Zdroj: |
PLoS ONE, Vol 11, Iss 11, p e0166163 (2016) |
Druh dokumentu: |
article |
ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
DOI: |
10.1371/journal.pone.0166163 |
Popis: |
Experimental and mathematical studies in immunology have revealed that the dynamics of the programmed T cell response to vigorous infection can be conveniently modelled using a sigmoidal or a discontinuous immune response function. This paper hypothesizes strong synergies between this existing work and the dynamical behaviour of engineering systems with a variable structure control (VSC) law. These findings motivate the interpretation of the immune system as a variable structure control system. It is shown that dynamical properties as well as conditions to analytically assess the transition from health to disease can be developed for the specific T cell response from the theory of variable structure control. In particular, it is shown that the robustness properties of the specific T cell response as observed in experiments can be explained analytically using a VSC perspective. Further, the predictive capacity of the VSC framework to determine the T cell help required to overcome chronic Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV) infection is demonstrated. The findings demonstrate that studying the immune system using variable structure control theory provides a new framework for evaluating immunological dynamics and experimental observations. A modelling and simulation tool results with predictive capacity to determine how to modify the immune response to achieve healthy outcomes which may have application in drug development and vaccine design. |
Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
Externí odkaz: |
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