A spatial model to understand tuberculosis granuloma formation and its impact on disease progression

Peng Feng

doi:10.1515/jncds-2023-0035

Article

A spatial model to understand tuberculosis granuloma formation and its impact on disease progression

Peng Feng

Published/Copyright: March 12, 2024

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From the journal Journal of Nonlinear, Complex and Data Science Volume 25 Issue 1

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). When Mtb enters inside the pulmonary alveolus, it is phagocytosed by the alveolar macrophages, followed by a cascade of immune responses. This leads to the recruitment and accumulation of additional macrophages and T cells in the pulmonary tissues. A key outcome of this is the formation of granuloma, the hallmark of TB infection. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model of the evolution of granuloma by a system of partial differential equations that is based on the classical Keller–Segel chemotaxis equation. We investigate the effect of different parameters on the formation of granuloma. We present numerical simulation results that illustrate the impact of different parameters. The implication of our result on the disease progression is also discussed.

Keywords: tuberculosis; immune response; chemotaxis model; radial basis function

Corresponding author: Peng Feng, Department of Mathematics, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA, E-mail: pfeng@fgcu.edu

Research ethics: Not applicable.
Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: The project was done in the summer of 2022 thanks to the generous support from Seider Fund.
Data availability: Not applicable.

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Received: 2023-05-24

Accepted: 2024-02-03

Published Online: 2024-03-12

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jncds-2023-0035

Keywords for this article

tuberculosis; immune response; chemotaxis model; radial basis function