title: Mathematical model to simulate the cellular dynamics of infection with human herpesvirus-6 in EBV-negative infectious mononucleosis.
abstract: Acute infection with human herpesvirus-6 induces physiological cell proliferation in persons without major immune deficiency. It thus can serve as a parameter to validate a mathematical model designed to simulate cell proliferation under physiological and pathological conditions. Such a mathematical model is presented to simulate various cell changes of the T-cell immune system during the course of HHV-6 infection. Model development follows several steps, beginning with a basic model containing physiological T-cell pools to the introduction of infectious stimuli in the final model. A search algorithm designed to optimize the system parameters, as well as initial variables of the model, is presented. The results of simulation runs for acute HHV-6 infection of the final computational model correspond well to the data, as documented in human patients; they suggest that the computational model presented for the simulation of T-cell levels in a given viral infection may well serve as a tool for similar studies of other viral infections, including those that lead to cellular aplasia or neoplasia.
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Biomedicine, School of Health Information Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77054, USA. guanyu.wang@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Guanyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gerhard R F
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Krueger
authors.forename: L Maximilian
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Buja
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D017209:Apoptosis; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015654:Herpesvirus 6, Human; D006801:Humans; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D018448:Models, Immunological; D019349:Roseolovirus Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology