Cattiaux, Patrick, Christophe, Claire and Gadat, Sébastien (2016) A stochastic model for cytotoxic T. Lymphocyte interaction with tumor nodules. TSE Working Paper, n. 16-711, Toulouse

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Abstract

CTL (Cytotoxic T. Lymphocytes) destroy virally infected cells and tumor cells via the secretion of lytic molecules stored in intracellular granules. They are key components of the anti-cancer immune response and it is therefore crucial to study in depth, and possibly enhance, their biological responses against tumors. In [CMR+15], we introduced a stochastic dynamical model that involves interacting particles based on experimentally measured parameters. It therefore makes it possible to describe CTL function during immuno-editing. At the same time, we showed on simulations that a bias in CTL motility inducing a progressive attraction towards a few scout CTL, which have detected the nodule, enhances early productive collisions and drastically improves the tumor eradication rate. In the present paper, we introduce a continuous time similar model and derive rigorously formulas for the evolution of the system CTL/Nodule. Numerical schemes then confirm the quantitative role of the bias in the CTL movement induced by scout CTL, and open new perspectives on chemotaxis for immunotherapy.