Candida Infection Biology – fungal armoury, battlefields ... - FINSysB

Poster number: 21
Agent based modelling and host pathogen interactions
Katarzyna M. Tyc 1 , Clemens Kühn 1 , Edda Klipp 1
1 Theoretische Biophysik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Mathematical models of pathogen and host interactions provide a tool for medical
applications and potential for pharmaceutical companies for testing novel drug
treatments and consequences of their application. Host pathogen interactions are
highly complex and experimental techniques even when combined with different
computational methods allow only for partial investigation of their mutual
dependences.
Based on the available literature we reconstruct a computational model of a human
oral epithelium invasion by the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans. We investigate
the system’s dynamics using the agent based modelling approach (ABM) where
cells (Candida cells, neutrophils (PMNs)) are represented as individual agents. These
agents interact in different ways: fungal cells form hyphal colonies on the epithelium
and then epithelial cells secrete cytokines upon contact with the hyphae form of
fungi, indicating inflammation. Cytokine secretion is one of the signals stimulating
PMNs recruitment to the site of infection. Mix of different gradients such as lactate
dehydrogenase (LDH) release from damaged epithelium, cytokines, and secreted
hyphal particles influences PMN activity. In our model, we investigate the essential
parameters that establish the system’s dynamics. We also look at the
consequences of an antifungal drug treatment on the Candida albicans survival rate
and its dose dependence. We test the optimal intervals and doses for new
application.
With agent based models, we can investigate the effect of individual dynamics on
global patterns, enabling an intuitive view on host-pathogen interactions that can
provide relevant predictions for further experiments.
We are grateful to the European Commission for funding the FINSysB Marie Curie Initial Training Network
(PITN-GA-2008-214004).
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