Morselli, David;
Delitala, Marcello Edoardo;
Frascoli, Federico;
(2023)
Agent-Based and Continuum Models for Spatial Dynamics of Infection by Oncolytic Viruses.
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
, 85
(10)
, Article 92. 10.1007/s11538-023-01192-x.
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Abstract
The use of oncolytic viruses as cancer treatment has received considerable attention in recent years, however the spatial dynamics of this viral infection is still poorly understood. We present here a stochastic agent-based model describing infected and uninfected cells for solid tumours, which interact with viruses in the absence of an immune response. Two kinds of movement, namely undirected random and pressure-driven movements, are considered: the continuum limit of the models is derived and a systematic comparison between the systems of partial differential equations and the individual-based model, in one and two dimensions, is carried out. In the case of undirected movement, a good agreement between agent-based simulations and the numerical and well-known analytical results for the continuum model is possible. For pressure-driven motion, instead, we observe a wide parameter range in which the infection of the agents remains confined to the center of the tumour, even though the continuum model shows traveling waves of infection; outcomes appear to be more sensitive to stochasticity and uninfected regions appear harder to invade, giving rise to irregular, unpredictable growth patterns. Our results show that the presence of spatial constraints in tumours’ microenvironments limiting free expansion has a very significant impact on virotherapy. Outcomes for these tumours suggest a notable increase in variability. All these aspects can have important effects when designing individually tailored therapies where virotherapy is included.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Agent-Based and Continuum Models for Spatial Dynamics of Infection by Oncolytic Viruses |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11538-023-01192-x |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11538-023-01192-x |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Anti-tumour therapies, Oncolytic virus, Pressure-driven cell movement, Individual-based models, Continuum models |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Mathematics |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200414 |
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