title: Dynamics of stochastic mutation to immunodominance.
abstract: Although a virus contains several epitopes that can be recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), the immune responses against different epitopes are not uniform. Only a few CTLs (sometimes just one) will be immunodominant. Mutation of epitopes has been recognized as an important mechanism of immunodominance. Previous research has studied the influences of sporadic, discrete mutation events. In this work, we introduce a bounded noise term to account for the intrinsic stochastic nature of mutation. Monte Carlo simulations of the stochastic model show abounding complex phenomena, and patterns observed from the numerical simulations shed lights on long term trends of immunodomnance.
authors: Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States. walton731@hotmail.com
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Wu
authors: Xiaopeng
authors: X
authors: Zhao
authors: Mingjun
authors: M
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018448:Models, Immunological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes