Modelling the suppression of autoimmunity after pathogen infection

Abstract

We study a mathematical model of immune response by T cells where the regulatory T cells (Treg) inhibit interleukin 2 (IL-2) secretion. We model the suppression of the autoimmune line of T cells after a different line of T cells responded to a pathogen infection. In this paper, we show that if the population of the pathogen responding line of T cells becomes large enough, the competition for IL-2 and the increase in the death rates may lead to a depletion in the concentration of autoimmune T cells. Provided this lasts for a sufficiently long time, the concentration of autoimmune T cells can be brought down to values inside the basin of attraction of the controlled state, and autoimmunity can be suppressed. Copyright (c) 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.