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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advanced Enteroid Model for Studying Host-Pathogen Interactions
Published on: April 5, 2024
On the principle of host evolution in host-pathogen interactions
Maia Martcheva1, Necibe Tuncer2, Yena Kim1
1a Department of Mathematics , University of Florida , Gainesville , FL , USA.
Abstract:
In this paper, we use a two-host one pathogen immuno-epidemiological model to argue that the principle for host evolution, when the host is subjected to a fatal disease, is minimization of the case fatality proportion [Formula: see text]. This principle is valid whether the disease is chronic or leads to recovery. In the case of continuum of hosts, stratified by their immune response stimulation rate a, we suggest that [Formula: see text] has a minimum because a trade-off exists between virulence to the host induced by the pathogen and virulence induced by the immune response. We find that the minimization of the case fatality proportion is an evolutionary stable strategy for the host.
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