A brief overview of mathematical modeling of the within-host dynamics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains one of the major infectious diseases of humans with 10 million TB cases and 1.5 million deaths due to TB worldwide yearly. Upon exposure of a new host to Mtb, bacteria typically infect one local site in the lung, but over time, Mtb disseminates in the lung and in some cases to extrapulmonary sites. The contribution of various host components such as immune cells to Mtb dynamics in the lung, its dissemination in the lung and outside of the lung, remains incompletely understood. Here we overview different types of mathematical models used to gain insights in within-host dynamics of Mtb; these include models based on ordinary or partial differential equations (ODEs and PDEs), stochastic simulation models based on ODEs, agent-based models (ABMs), and hybrid models (ODE-based models linked to ABMs). We illustrate results from several of such models and identify areas for future resesarch.