Modeling Dengue Immune Responses Mediated by Antibodies: Insights on the Biological Parameters to Describe Dengue Infections

Figure 8

Flow chart: dengue infection immunological responses mediated by antibodies for the secondary dengue infection with heterologous serotype. Similarly to the Figure 6 description, magenta lines represent the transitions and movement of susceptible target cells (monocytes/dendritic cells and macrophages) from one to another class (infected and presenting cells) with the respective transmission rates indicated. The full red line represents the viral replication, proportional to the death rate of an infected cell. The difference here lies on the dashed red lines represent: the viral particles removal during the infection process of a susceptible cell and the preexisting-IgG-DENV removal during the infection process of a susceptible cell, the so-called ADE process, which enhances the infection, increasing the viral replication. The green lines represent the activation of the preexisting IgG at rate together with the production rates of the antibodies by the presenting cells (on the left hand side) and (on the right hand side). In this scenario, the IgG levels increases first and much faster then the levels. The viral load is much higher than the observed levels for models A and B. Dashed blue and orange lines represent the binding and removal rates for antibodies-virus and virus-antibodies, respectively. The full orange lines represent the transitions of free antibodies particles to antibody-DENV complexes after biding into the free viral particle, with the respective transmission rates indicated. Black lines represent the recruitment and decay rates of the model variables.