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Updated: Feb 27, 2026
In Vitro Analysis of Myd88-mediated Cellular Immune Response to West Nile Virus Mutant Strain Infection
Published on: November 27, 2014
A theoretical model of the West Nile Virus survival data
James K Peterson1, Alison M Kesson2,3, Nicholas J C King4
1Department of Biological Sciences, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Clemson University, Martin Hall O-304, BOX 340975, Clemson, SC, 340975, USA. petersj@clemson.edu.
Background:
In this work, we develop a theoretical model that explains the survival data in West Nile Virus infection.
Results:
We build a model based on three cell populations in an infected host; the collateral damage cells, the infected dividing cell, and the infected non-dividing cells. T cell-mediated lysis of each of these populations is dependent on the level of MHC-1 upregulation, which is different in the two infected cell populations, interferon-gamma and free virus levels.
Conclusions:
The model allows us to plot a measure of host health versus time for a range of initial viral doses and from that infer the dependence of minimal health versus viral dose. This inferred functional relationship between the minimal host health and viral dose is very similar to the data that has been collected for WNV survival curves under experimental conditions.
