Modeling the interaction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and influenza virus infected epithelial cells (Q964170)

The authors investigate the mechanisms involved in the clearance of viral infections of the influenza virus at the epithelium level by modeling and analyzing the interactions of the influenza virus specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL cells) and the influenza virus infected epithelial cells. Since detailed and definite mechanisms that trigger CTL production and cell death are still debatable, they utilize two plausible mathematical models for the CTLs responses to influenza infection: (i) logistic growth and (ii) threshold growth. These models incorporate the stimulating effect of the production of CTLs during the infection. Systematic analysis of these models shows that the behaviors of the models are similar when CTL density is high and in which case both generate reasonable dynamics. However, both models failed to produce a desirable and natural clearance dynamics. Nevertheless, at lower CTL density, the threshold model shows the possibility of existence of a ``lower'' equilibrium. This sub-threshold equilibrium may represent dose-dependent immune response to low level infections. Analytical results are supported by numerical simulations.