Mathematical Modeling of the Immune System in Homeostasis, Infection and Disease


Book Description

The immune system provides the host organism with defense mechanisms against invading pathogens and tumor development and it plays an active role in tissue and organ regeneration. Deviations from the normal physiological functioning of the immune system can lead to the development of diseases with various pathologies including autoimmune diseases and cancer. Modern research in immunology is characterized by an unprecedented level of detail that has progressed towards viewing the immune system as numerous components that function together as a whole network. Currently, we are facing significant difficulties in analyzing the data being generated from high-throughput technologies for understanding immune system dynamics and functions, a problem known as the ‘curse of dimensionality’. As the mainstream research in mathematical immunology is based on low-resolution models, a fundamental question is how complex the mathematical models should be? To respond to this challenging issue, we advocate a hypothesis-driven approach to formulate and apply available mathematical modelling technologies for understanding the complexity of the immune system. Moreover, pure empirical analyses of immune system behavior and the system’s response to external perturbations can only produce a static description of the individual components of the immune system and the interactions between them. Shifting our view of the immune system from a static schematic perception to a dynamic multi-level system is a daunting task. It requires the development of appropriate mathematical methodologies for the holistic and quantitative analysis of multi-level molecular and cellular networks. Their coordinated behavior is dynamically controlled via distributed feedback and feedforward mechanisms which altogether orchestrate immune system functions. The molecular regulatory loops inherent to the immune system that mediate cellular behaviors, e.g. exhaustion, suppression, activation and tuning, can be analyzed using mathematical categories such as multi-stability, switches, ultra-sensitivity, distributed system, graph dynamics, or hierarchical control. GB is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 18-11-00171). AM is also supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and FEDER grant no. SAF2016-75505-R, the “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D (MDM-2014-0370) and the Russian Science Foundation (grant 18-11-00171).




Mathematical, Computational and Experimental T Cell Immunology


Book Description

Mathematical, statistical, and computational methods enable multi-disciplinary approaches that catalyse discovery. Together with experimental methods, they identify key hypotheses, define measurable observables and reconcile disparate results. This volume collects a representative sample of studies in T cell immunology that illustrate the benefits of modelling-experimental collaborations and which have proven valuable or even ground-breaking. Studies include thymic selection, T cell repertoire diversity, T cell homeostasis in health and disease, T cell-mediated immune responses, T cell memory, T cell signalling and analysis of flow cytometry data sets. Contributing authors are leading scientists in the area of experimental, computational, and mathematical immunology. Each chapter includes state-of-the-art and pedagogical content, making this book accessible to readers with limited experience in T cell immunology and/or mathematical and computational modelling.




Theoretical Immunology (part I)


Book Description

Assuming that the complex phenomena underlying the operation of the immune system may be better understood through the collaborative efforts of theorists and experimentalists viewing the same phenomen




Mathematical Modelling of Immune Response in Infectious Diseases


Book Description

Beginning his work on the monograph to be published in English, this author tried to present more or less general notions of the possibilities of mathematics in the new and rapidly developing science of infectious immunology, describing the processes of an organism's defence against antigen invasions. The results presented in this monograph are based on the construc tion and application of closed models of immune response to infections which makes it possible to approach problems of optimizing the treat ment of chronic and hypertoxic forms of diseases. The author, being a mathematician, had creative long-Iasting con tacts with immunologists, geneticist, biologists, and clinicians. As far back as 1976 it resulted in the organization of a special seminar in the Computing Center of Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sci ences on mathematical models in immunology. The seminar attracted the attention of a wide circle of leading specialists in various fields of science. All these made it possible to approach, from a more or less united stand point, the construction of models of immune response, the mathematical description of the models, and interpretation of results.




Insight and Control of Infectious Disease in Global Scenario


Book Description

This book is projected as a preliminary manuscript in Infectious Disease. It is undertaken to cover the foremost basic features of the articles. Infectious Disease and analogous phenomenon have been one of the main imperative postwar accomplishments in the world. The book expects to provide its reader, who does not make believe to be a proficient mathematician, an extensive preamble to the field of infectious disease. It may immeasurably assist the Scientists and Research Scholars for continuing their investigate workings on this discipline. Numerous productive and precise illustrated descriptions with a number of analyses have been included. The book offers a smooth and continuing evolution from the principally disease oriented lessons to a logical advance, providing the researchers with a compact groundwork for upcoming studies in this subject.







Killer Cell Dynamics


Book Description

This book reviews how mathematical and computational approaches can be useful to help us understand how killer T-cell responses work to fight viral infections. It also demonstrates, in a writing style that exemplifies the point, that such mathematical and computational approaches are most valuable when coupled with experimental work through interdisciplinary collaborations. Designed to be useful to immunoligists and viroligists without extensive computational background, the book covers a broad variety of topics, including both basic immunological questions and the application of these insights to the understanding and treatment of pathogenic human diseases.




Handbook on Immunosenescence


Book Description

This authoritative handbook covers all aspects of immunosenescence, with contributions from experts in the research and clinical areas. It examines methods and models for studying immunosenescence; genetics; mechanisms including receptors and signal transduction; clinical relevance in disease states including infections, autoimmunity, cancer, metabolic syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases, frailty and osteoporosis; and much more.




Adverse Effects of Vaccines


Book Description

In 1900, for every 1,000 babies born in the United States, 100 would die before their first birthday, often due to infectious diseases. Today, vaccines exist for many viral and bacterial diseases. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, passed in 1986, was intended to bolster vaccine research and development through the federal coordination of vaccine initiatives and to provide relief to vaccine manufacturers facing financial burdens. The legislation also intended to address concerns about the safety of vaccines by instituting a compensation program, setting up a passive surveillance system for vaccine adverse events, and by providing information to consumers. A key component of the legislation required the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to collaborate with the Institute of Medicine to assess concerns about the safety of vaccines and potential adverse events, especially in children. Adverse Effects of Vaccines reviews the epidemiological, clinical, and biological evidence regarding adverse health events associated with specific vaccines covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), including the varicella zoster vaccine, influenza vaccines, the hepatitis B vaccine, and the human papillomavirus vaccine, among others. For each possible adverse event, the report reviews peer-reviewed primary studies, summarizes their findings, and evaluates the epidemiological, clinical, and biological evidence. It finds that while no vaccine is 100 percent safe, very few adverse events are shown to be caused by vaccines. In addition, the evidence shows that vaccines do not cause several conditions. For example, the MMR vaccine is not associated with autism or childhood diabetes. Also, the DTaP vaccine is not associated with diabetes and the influenza vaccine given as a shot does not exacerbate asthma. Adverse Effects of Vaccines will be of special interest to the National Vaccine Program Office, the VICP, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccine safety researchers and manufacturers, parents, caregivers, and health professionals in the private and public sectors.




Mathematical Models for Therapeutic Approaches to Control HIV Disease Transmission


Book Description

The book discusses different therapeutic approaches based on different mathematical models to control the HIV/AIDS disease transmission. It uses clinical data, collected from different cited sources, to formulate the deterministic as well as stochastic mathematical models of HIV/AIDS. It provides complementary approaches, from deterministic and stochastic points of view, to optimal control strategy with perfect drug adherence and also tries to seek viewpoints of the same issue from different angles with various mathematical models to computer simulations. The book presents essential methods and techniques for students who are interested in designing epidemiological models on HIV/AIDS. It also guides research scientists, working in the periphery of mathematical modeling, and helps them to explore a hypothetical method by examining its consequences in the form of a mathematical modelling and making some scientific predictions. The model equations, mathematical analysis and several numerical simulations that are presented in the book would serve to reveal the consequences of the logical structure of the disease transmission, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. One of the chapters introduces the optimal control approach towards the mathematical models, describing the optimal drug dosage process that is discussed with the basic deterministic models dealing with stability analysis. Another one chapter deals with the mathematical analysis for the perfect drug adherence for different drug dynamics during the treatment management. The last chapter of the book consists the stochastic approach to the disease dynamics on HIV/AIDS. This method helps to move the disease HIV/AIDS to extinction as the time to increase. This book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers, who are studying and working in the field of bio-mathematical modelling on infectious diseases, applied mathematics, health informatics, applied statistics and qualitative public health, etc. Social workers, who are working in the field of HIV, will also find the book useful for complements.