Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference May 21st, 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM Strong Defense By Weak Affinities: Modeling Virus-Antibody-Mucin Kinetics Timothy Wessler University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, wessler@live.unc.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bamm http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bamm/2016/May21/40 This Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Dept of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at VCU Scholars Compass It has been accepted for inclusion in Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass For more information, please contact libcompass@vcu.edu 2016 Strong Defense By Weak Affinities: Modeling Virus-Antibody-Mucin Kinetics Timothy Wessler A promising strategy to reduce vaginal HIV transmission is to design antibodies antibodies (Ab) that can crosslink HIV viruses to mucins mesh comprising cervicovaginal mucus (CVM), thereby blocking viruses from reaching and infecting target cells Here, we modeled the kinetics of HIV in semen that diffuse into a layer of CVM populated by Ab with distinct affinities to mucins We compared a continuum approach using partial differential equations for the diffusion of Ab and virion concentrations with stochastic simulations of individual virions Our model has generated many unexpected yet important insights into the design of antibodies that can effectively reduce the flux of HIV arriving at target cells, offering a promising approach to reducing vaginal transmission of HIV and other common sexually transmitted infections .. .Strong Defense By Weak Affinities: Modeling Virus-Antibody-Mucin Kinetics Timothy Wessler A promising strategy to reduce... cervicovaginal mucus (CVM), thereby blocking viruses from reaching and infecting target cells Here, we modeled the kinetics of HIV in semen that diffuse into a layer of CVM populated by Ab with distinct affinities