A mathematical model describing the localization and spread of influenza A virus infection within the human respiratory tract

摘要

This work proposes a new way to think about and model the dissemination of an influenza A virus (IAV) infection within the human respiratory tract (HRT). The computational model takes into account the physiological environment in which the infection takes place by representing the HRT spatially in one dimension (depth), and by incorporating the effect of virion diffusion within the periciliary fluid that bathes infectable cells, and the remarkable physiological barrier that is the mucus escalator, sweeping virus upwards. Cell regeneration, the immune response, and infection with human vs avian IAV strains are explored in this spatial context. The numerical efficiency of this model, compared to agent-based models, makes it an attractive alternative to model respiratory virus infections in vivo.