SPATIOTEMPORAL DYNAMICS IN A MODEL OF IMMUNODOMINANCE

Abstract

Adapative immune response to viral infection is mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) eliminating infected cells and virus-neutralizing antibodies produced by B-lymphocytes. Different epitopes, that is, some parts of antigens, stimulate clonal expansion of the corresponding lymphocytes. These different types of CTLs and antibodies begin to compete with each other leading to immunodominance of some of them. As a result, some types of CTLs and antibodies will persist and increase their number, while some others will become extinct. In this work, we study spatiotemporal dynamics in a previously developed mathematical model of immunodominance. We begin with the investigation of complex oscillations exhibited by the concentrations of epitopes and corresponding cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in the ODE model and determine the mechanism of these oscillations. After that, we study the reaction–diffusion system of equations describing their spatiotemporal dynamics and analyze how these dynamics depend on the interaction of different virus variants and CTL types.