MEPI-MS13

Vector-borne Diseases: Data, Modeling, and Analysis

Wednesday, June 16 at 09:30am (PDT)
Wednesday, June 16 at 05:30pm (BST)
Thursday, June 17 01:30am (KST)

SMB2021 Follow Monday (Tuesday) during the "MS13" time block.

Note: this minisymposia has multiple sessions. The second session is MS06-MEPI (click here).

Jing Chen (Nova Southeastern University, United States), Shigui Ruan (University of Miami, United States), Xi Huo (University of Miami, United States)

Description:

Global change in the 21st century poses a significant threat to human health and vector-borne diseases will change in distribution and intensity as a result of global warming. Understanding the impacts of temperature, precipitation, vector spread, and human behavior remains extremely challenging and is essential in predicting future vector-borne disease outbreaks. Mathematical models are important tools to provide comprehensive explanations and quantitative simulations on natural phenomenon via analysis and data fitting methods. In this mini-symposium, we gather researchers with expertise in modeling vector-borne diseases to share their recent advances in either mathematical analysis or data fitting techniques.

Rongsong Liu

(University of Wyoming, United States)

"Using Multiple Dose Pharmacokinetic Models to Predict Bioavailability of Toxins in Vertebrate Herbivores"

In the presented work, compartmental pharmacokinetic models are built to predict the concentration of toxic phytochemical in the gastrointestinal tract and blood following oral intake by an individual vertebrate herbivore. The existing single and multiple dose pharmacokinetic models are extended by inclusion of impulsive differential equations which account for an excretion factor whereby unchanged toxins are excreted in the feces due to gastrointestinal mobility. An index α is defined to measure the fraction of bioavailability attributed to the excretion factor of gastrointestinal motility. Sensitivity analysis was conducted and suggests, for any toxin, the bioavailability index α depends mostly on absorption rate of toxin from gastrointestinal tract into the blood, frequency of elimination due to gastrointestinal motility, and the frequency of toxin intake, under the model assumptions.

Yanyu Xiao

(University of Cincinnati, United States)

"Examine the dehydration effects on the behaviours of insects"

Current insights into the mosquito dehydration response rely on studies that examine specific responses but ultimately fail to provide an encompassing view of mosquito biology. Here, we examined underlying changes in the biology of mosquitoes associated with dehydration. Specifically, we show that dehydration increases blood feeding in the northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens, which was the result of both higher activity and a greater tendency to land on a host. Similar observations were noted for Aedes aegypti and Anopheles quadrimaculatus. RNA-seq and metabolome analyses in C. pipiens following dehydration revealed that factors associated with carbohydrate metabolism are altered, specifically the breakdown of trehalose. Suppression of trehalose breakdown in C. pipiens by RNA interference reduced phenotypes associated with lower hydration levels. Lastly, mesocosm studies for C. pipiens confirmed that dehydrated mosquitoes were more likely to host feed under ecologically relevant conditions. Disease modeling indicates dehydration bouts will likely enhance viral transmission. This dehydration-induced increase in blood feeding is therefore likely to occur regularly and intensify during periods when availability of water is low.

William Fitzgibbon

(University of Houston, United States)

"Mathematical Models for the Spatio Temporal Spread of Vector Born Disease in Highly Heterogeneous Domains: Part I"

This is a sequenced pair of talks. Part I will be given by the first alphabetically listed author and Part II will be given by the second alphabetically listed author. We are witnessing a global resurgence of vector-borne disease. The term vector-borne disease (VBD) refers to infectious disease that is transmitted between humans or and various animal species and vector arthropods (typically, mosquito, ticks, flies, mites). Among humans they can be potentially fatal and frequency feature a high level of morbidity. They also pose a major threat to livestock and wildlife. Common VBD’s affecting humans are malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Lyme disease, Zika, West Nile Virus, and of course the infamous plague. VBD’, perhaps less widely known than their human counterparts, include screwworm, blue tongue disease, cattle fever, equine encephalitis, and akabane. In these talks we will present a suite of distributed parameter models that describe the spatio-temporal spread of vector born disease. We will pay particular attention issues modelling and analytical issues associated with the incorporation of a high degree of spatial heterogeneity. Part I will focus primarily upon the development of the models while Part II will focus upon analytical issues and challenges presented by models involving this level of complexity.

Jeffrey Morgan