Modeling of cancer virotherapy with recombinant measles viruses

Željko Bajzer, Thomas Carr, Krešimir Josić, Stephen J. Russell, David Dingli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

91 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Edmonston vaccine strain of measles virus has potent and selective activity against a wide range of tumors. Tumor cells infected by this virus or genetically modified strains express viral proteins that allow them to fuse with neighboring cells to form syncytia that ultimately die. Moreover, infected cells may produce new virus particles that proceed to infect additional tumor cells. We present a model of tumor and virus interactions based on established biology and with proper accounting of the free virus population. The range of model parameters is estimated by fitting to available experimental data. The stability of equilibrium states corresponding to complete tumor eradication, therapy failure and partial tumor reduction is discussed. We use numerical simulations to explore conditions for which the model predicts successful therapy and tumor eradication. The model exhibits damped, as well as stable oscillations in a range of parameter values. These oscillatory states are organized by a Hopf bifurcation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)109-122
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Theoretical Biology
Volume252
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 7 2008

Keywords

  • Cancer therapy
  • Oscillatory dynamical systems
  • Population dynamics
  • Tumor growth modeling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistics and Probability
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • Applied Mathematics

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