Modelling group
at the Department of Medical Biometry, University of Tübingen
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Impressum

Modelling the dynamics of asexual Plasmodium falciparum parasites in the blood and their interaction with the human immune system

To describe the parasitaemia of people who experience a Plasmodium falciparum infection for the first time, a semi-stochastic difference equation was developed. The parameters were estimated from historical data of syphilitic patients who had undergone a malario-therapy and from whom daily blood samples had been obtained. The results of our model were compared to "targed statistics" for biologically relevant aspects (calculated from the data of syphilitic patients).
The model output was more realistic than any previously published model result. Its highly realistic behaviour was achieved by a combination of
  • intra-clonal antigenic variation
  • large variations of the variants' baseline growth rate, depending on both variant and case
  • innate autoregulation of the asexual parasite density, variable among cases
  • acquired variant-specific immunity
  • acquired variant-transcending immunity, variable among cases
(PDF, 263 kB)
Responsible for this page: Prof. Dr. M. Eichner
Webmaster: Prof. Dr. M. Eichner (last change of this page on 13 July 2009)
Cooperation with: K. Dietz, Department of Medical Biometry (IMB), Tübingen, Germany
L. Molineaux, Geneva, Switzerland
H. H. Diebner, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany
Further project partners: P. Alonso, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Unidad de Epidemiologia y Biostadistica, Spain
M. Coluzzi, Università di Roma, Istitituto di Parassitologia, Rome, Italy
P. Druilhe, Institut Pasteur, Biomedical Parasitology, Paris, France
B. Greenwood, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Department of Medical Parasitology, London, UK
K. Marsh, Wellcome Trust, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kilifi, Kenya
K. Mendis, University of Colombo, Malaria Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Colombo, Sri Lanka
N. Maryse, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, Laboratoire de Recherches, Lambaréné, Gabon
C. Newbold, University of Oxford, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Headington, UK
O. Puijalon, Institut Pasteur, Unite d'Immunologie Moleculaire des Parasites, Paris, France
C. Rogier, Institut de Médécine Tropicale du Service de Santé des Armées (IMTSSA), Unité de Parasitologie, Marseille, France
B. S. Sirima, Centre National de Lutte Contre le Paludisme (CNLP), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
A. Spiegel, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Unité d'Épidemiologie, Dakar, Senegal
T. Smith, Swiss Tropical Institute, Department of Public Health & Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland
J.F. Trappe, Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le Développement en Cooperation (ORSTOM), Paris, France
D. Walliker, University of Edinburgh, Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology (ICAPB), Edinburgh, Scotland
A. Kitua, Ifakara Centre, National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Ifakara, Tanzania
Financial support by: EU Concerted Action Contract No. IC18-CT97-0242
Disclaimer: Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Tübingen University Hospital, the Department for Medical Biometry (IMB), and the authors of this page disclaim all liability for the content of any page referenced by hyper-link from this page

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