Related papers: Control of human immune response function by T-cel…
Regulatory T cells (Treg) have recently been identified as playing a central role in allergy and during allergen-specific immunotherapy. We have extended our previous mathematical model describing the nonlinear dynamics of Th1-Th2…
Response time-delay is an ubiquitous phenomenon in biological systems. Here we use a simple stochastic population model with time-delayed switching-rate conversion to quantitatively study the biological influence of the response time-delay…
This paper investigates dynamic behaviors of the tumor-immune system perturbed by environmental noise. The model describes the response of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) to the growth of an immunogenic tumour. The main methods are…
Active contributions to fluctuations are a direct consequence of metabolic energy consumption in living cells. Such metabolic processes continuously create active forces, which deform the membrane to control motility, proliferation as well…
The adaptive and innate branches of the vertebrate immune system work in close collaboration to protect organisms from harmful pathogens. As an organism ages its immune system undergoes immunosenescence, characterized by declined…
The article analyzes the contribution of stochastic thermal fluctuations in the attachment times of the immature T-cell receptor TCR: peptide-major-histocompatibility-complex pMHC immunological synapse bond. The key question addressed here…
The adaptive immune response relies on T cells that combine phenotypic specialization with diversity of T cell receptors (TCRs) to recognize a wide range of pathogens. TCRs are acquired and selected during T cell maturation in the thymus.…
Cells of the immune system are confronted with opposing pro- and anti-inflammatory signals. Dendritic cells (DC) integrate these cues to make informed decisions whether to initiate an immune response. Confronted with exogenous microbial…
An interesting inference drawn by some Covid-19 epidemiological models is that there exists a proportion of the population who are not susceptible to infection -- even at the start of the current pandemic. This paper introduces a model of…
Recent experimental studies have suggested the ratio between T-helper and T-suppressor lymphocytes as an index of immunosuppression in HIV, cancer, immunosenescence and inflammatory and auto-immune diseases. However, a quantitative…
Dormancy is a widespread adaptive strategy that enables populations to persist in fluctuating environments, yet how its benefits depend on the temporal structure of environmental variability remains unclear. We examine how dormancy…
Adaptation in a fluctuating environment is a process of fueling environmental information to gain fitness. Living systems have gradually developed strategies for adaptation from random and passive diversification of the phenotype to more…
Here we report on the viscosity of eukaryotic living cells as a function of the time, and on the application of stochastic models to analyze its temporal fluctuations. The viscoelastic properties of NIH/3T3 fibroblastic cells are…
Although the immune response is often regarded as acting to suppress tumor growth, it is now clear that it can be both stimulatory and inhibitory. The interplay between these competing influences has complex implications for tumor…
We study the population profile in a simple discrete time model of population dynamics. Our model, which is closely related to certain ``bit-string'' models of evolution, incorporates competition for resources via a population dependent…
Adaptive control in biological systems, such as intestinal immunity, remains poorly understood despite detailed knowledge of underlying regulatory networks. We propose an alternative framework based on stochastic martingale turnover, in…
Viral infections trigger complex immune responses with heterogeneous outcomes shaped by nonlinear feedbacks. An ordinary differential equation model is developed to investigate immune response dynamics during viral infection, incorporating…
Timing is essential for many cellular processes, from cellular responses to external stimuli to the cell cycle and circadian clocks. Many of these processes are based on gene expression. For example, an activated gene may be required to…
The study of immune system aging, i.e. immunosenescence, is a relatively new research topic. It deals with understanding the processes of immunodegradation that indicate signs of functionality loss possibly leading to death. Even though it…
In order to target threatening pathogens, the adaptive immune system performs a continuous reorganization of its lymphocyte repertoire. Following an immune challenge, the B cell repertoire can evolve cells of increased specificity for the…