Breaking the symmetry: Immune enhancement increases persistence of dengue viruses in the presence of asymmetric transmission rates

The dengue viruses exist as four antigenically distinct serotypes. These four serotypes co-circulate and interact with each other through multiple immune-mediated mechanisms. Though the majority of previous efforts to understand the transmission dynamics of dengue have assumed identical characterist...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of theoretical biology 2013-09, Vol.332, p.203-210
Main Authors: Mier-y-Teran-Romero, Luis, Schwartz, Ira B., Cummings, Derek A.T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibody dependent enhancement
Dengue
Dengue - immunology
Dengue - transmission
Dengue vaccine
Dengue Vaccines - immunology
Dengue Virus - immunology
Humans
Models, Immunological
Serotypical asymmetry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The dengue viruses exist as four antigenically distinct serotypes. These four serotypes co-circulate and interact with each other through multiple immune-mediated mechanisms. Though the majority of previous efforts to understand the transmission dynamics of dengue have assumed identical characteristics for these four serotypes, empirical data suggests that they differ from one another in important ways. Here, we examine dynamics and persistence in models that do not assume symmetry between the dengue viruses. We find that for serotype transmission rates that are only slightly asymmetric, increased transmissibility of secondary infections through immune enhancement increases the persistence of all dengue viruses in opposition to findings in symmetric models. We identify an optimal magnitude of immune enhancement that maximizes the probability of persistence of all four serotypes. In contrast to other pathogen systems where heterogeneity between serotypes in transmissibility facilitates competitive exclusion (Bremmermann and Thieme, 1989), here we find that in the presence of Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) heterogeneity can increase the persistence of multiple serotypes of dengue. •The consequences of dengue serotype heterogeneity remains an important and open question.•The majority of models assume dengue serotypes with identical characteristics.•Differences in the transmission of dengue serotypes are here considered systematically.•Serotype persistence is enhanced by asymmetries combined with immune enhancement.•Serotype asymmetries may complicate the control of dengue through vaccination.
ISSN:0022-5193
1095-8541
DOI:10.1016/j.jtbi.2013.04.036