This simulation aims to explain the behavior of CD8 T-cells as part of the early immune response to an infection. CD8 T-cells carry out several roles in an immune response, and they will carry out these different roles depending on the type of cell that they are. T-cells begin in a naive state, and when in contact with an antigen presenting cell (APC), they will differentiate to a preactivated state. In this preactivated state, the cells begin to secrete interleukin 2 (IL2) and it is this protein that drives the differentiation for T-cells. Cells will also begin producing Tbet, a protein that drives the differentiation from the activated stage to the effector stage. Once preactivated, the cells will wait until their IL2 threshold (the point at which their IL2 receptors become active) is reached. Once this threshold is reached, the cells will differentiate into an activated state. Tbet production begins when a cell becomes preactivated, and the threshold for this protein is reached a little after 2 days into the simulation. Once the threshold is reached, the cells will reach the effector stage which is the final stage of cell differentiation for the simulation. In reality, surviving T-cells will evolve to become memory T-cells, however this simulation does not consider memory cells due to the timeframe of the model. 

The model allows users to change the initial cell population for total cells as well as APC. Additionally, there are two more parameters that the user may change that will alter the behavior of the intracellular ODE model.

**NOTE**

In order to run the simulation, the user must select an initial cell population for both total cells as well as an initial APC population. These population values are set to their default values (33 total cells, 3 APC) to begin. These values may be changed as desired by the user. Once these values are chosen the user must change the value of "Start" from 0 to 1. Once this is done, the simulation will run.

Prokopiou, S.A.; Barbarroux, L.; Bernard, S.; Mafille, J.; Leverrier, Y.; Arpin, C.; Marvel, J.; Gandrillon, O.; Crauste, F. Multiscale Modeling of the Early CD8 T-Cell Immune Response in Lymph Nodes: An Integrative Study. Computation 2014, 2, 159-181. https://doi.org/10.3390/computation2040159

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Hanna, Tyler Scott, T.J. Sego (2021), "CD8 T-cell Simulation," https://nanohub.org/resources/tcellproject. (DOI: 10.21981/MJPD-5T67).

  BibTex | EndNote

1. biology
2. cc3d
3. immune response
4. simulation and modeling