Section: New Results

Modelling of the CD8 T cell Immune Response

Participants : Fabien Crauste [Contact person] , Olivier Gandrillon, Emmanuelle Terry.

In collaboration with J. Marvel and C. Arpin.

The CD8 immune response is a specific immune response triggered by the organism when the innate response is unable to fight a pathogen. We proposed a new model of the CD8 T cell immune response based on the description of feedback controls exerted by the cytotoxic CD8 T cell population on the pathogen and the population itself [14] . This model, a system of ordinary and age-structured partial differential equations, allows describing a classical response, characterized by a cellular expansion following the pathogen-mediated activation, then a contraction phase and the generation of memory CD8 T cells. Moreover, we showed the global asymptotic stability of this system corresponding to the elimination of the virus. This situation is expected and describes for instance what is observed with the flu virus.

A simpler version of this model (based on nonlinear ordinary differential equations) has then been confronted to experimental data generated by Jacqueline Marvel's team in Lyon (immunology team), with 3 different pathogens. A parameter sweep has been performed and some parameters of the model, specific of cellular processes, have been shown to characterize CD8 immune responses against either a virus or a bacterium. This work is in progress and should be submitted soon.