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Reis RF, Pigozzo AB, Bonin CRB, Quintela BDM, Pompei LT, Vieira AC, Silva LDLE, Xavier MP, Weber dos Santos R, Lobosco M. A Validated Mathematical Model of the Cytokine Release Syndrome in Severe COVID-19. Front Mol Biosci 2021; 8:639423. [PMID: 34355020 PMCID: PMC8329239 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.639423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
By June 2021, a new contagious disease, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has infected more than 172 million people worldwide, causing more than 3.7 million deaths. Many aspects related to the interactions of the disease's causative agent, SAR2-CoV-2, and the immune response are not well understood: the multiscale interactions among the various components of the human immune system and the pathogen are very complex. Mathematical and computational tools can help researchers to answer these open questions about the disease. In this work, we present a system of fifteen ordinary differential equations that models the immune response to SARS-CoV-2. The model is used to investigate the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 infects immune cells and, for this reason, induces high-level productions of inflammatory cytokines. Simulation results support this hypothesis and further explain why survivors have lower levels of cytokines levels than non-survivors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruy Freitas Reis
- Institute of Exact Sciences, Department of Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | | | - Carla Rezende Barbosa Bonin
- Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Southeast of Minas Gerais - Cataguases Advanced Campus, Cataguases, Brazil
| | - Barbara de Melo Quintela
- Institute of Exact Sciences, Department of Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Lara Turetta Pompei
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Ana Carolina Vieira
- GET-EngComp, Grupo de Educação Tutorial Engenharia Computacional, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Larissa de Lima e Silva
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Maicom Peters Xavier
- Graduate Program on Computational Modeling, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Weber dos Santos
- Institute of Exact Sciences, Department of Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- Graduate Program on Computational Modeling, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Marcelo Lobosco
- Institute of Exact Sciences, Department of Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- FISIOCOMP - Laboratory of Computational Fisiology and High-Performance Computing, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
- Graduate Program on Computational Modeling, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
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A personalized computational model of edema formation in myocarditis based on long-axis biventricular MRI images. BMC Bioinformatics 2019; 20:532. [PMID: 31822264 PMCID: PMC6905016 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-3139-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Myocarditis is defined as the inflammation of the myocardium, i.e. the cardiac muscle. Among the reasons that lead to this disease, we may include infections caused by a virus, bacteria, protozoa, fungus, and others. One of the signs of the inflammation is the formation of edema, which may be a consequence of the interaction between interstitial fluid dynamics and immune response. This complex physiological process was mathematically modeled using a nonlinear system of partial differential equations (PDE) based on porous media approach. By combing a model based on Biot’s poroelasticity theory with a model for the immune response we developed a new hydro-mechanical model for inflammatory edema. To verify this new computational model, T2 parametric mapping obtained by Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging was used to identify the region of edema in a patient diagnosed with unspecific myocarditis. Results A patient-specific geometrical model was created using MRI images from the patient with myocarditis. With this model, edema formation was simulated using the proposed hydro-mechanical mathematical model in a two-dimensional domain. The computer simulations allowed us to correlate spatiotemporal dynamics of representative cells of the immune systems, such as leucocytes and the pathogen, with fluid accumulation and cardiac tissue deformation. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the proposed mathematical model is a very promising tool to better understand edema formation in myocarditis. Simulations obtained from a patient-specific model reproduced important aspects related to the formation of cardiac edema, its area, position, and shape, and how these features are related to immune response.
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