Mathematical modeling of anti-adhesion therapies for bacterial infection #

Cameron Wilcox, Sara Jabbari, Paul A Roberts, Francisco Fernnandez-Trillo

15:10 Tuesday in 3Q68.

Part of the Biofilms and pattern formation session.

Abstract #

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria is one of the biggest threats to public health today. Resistant bacteria already account for more than 750,000 global fatalities annually – a figure that could rise to upwards of 10 million individuals by the year 2050. It is critical that novel treatment strategies are developed to counteract such a hazard to human life, either to replace or be used in tandem with existing antimicrobials. Anti-virulence treatments are one such group of alternative treatments. When deployed, anti-virulence treatments prevent bacteria from utilising their arsenal of toxins. In particular we focus upon anti-adhesion therapies in which the goal is to prevent bacteria from adhering to host cells, preventing toxicity.

We present an ordinary differential equation model of a theoretical anti-adhesion therapy and provide a detailed sensitivity analysis of the parameter space.