TH17 functional study in severe asthma using agent based model

TH17 is a subset of CD4+T cells. Comparing to common asthma patients, there are more TH17 cells in the respiratory systems of the patients with severe asthma. TH17 cells are mainly adjusted by IL23 to produce IL17A and IL17F, which act on the epithelial cells and cause severe asthma. However, the TH17 function in severe asthma as a driving mechanism of neutrophilic inflammation is not yet fully understood and deserves further study. However, it is very difficult to describe the interactions between TH17 and other cells using mathematics equations due to the high complexity of immunity system. In order to explore the TH17 function in severe asthma, we used BIS (Basic Immune Simulator) platform to simulate TH17 models, and compared DC (Dendritic Cell) models with TH17 models. We studied the interaction between innate immune and adaptive immune cells, which was resulted from TH17 cells. The simulation results for the TH17 models are consistent with clinical data, which suggests that DC–IL23–TH17 axis might be the path of causing severe asthma. Our simulation studies support a role for TH17 in severe asthma, and hence it could be taken as a new target candidate for clinical treatment of severe asthma.

► We used BIS (Basic Immune Simulator) platform to explore the TH17 function in severe asthma.
► We compared our TH17 models with DC (Dendritic Cell) models.
► We studied the interaction between innate immune and adaptive immune cells, which resulted from TH17 cells.
► The simulation results for the TH17 models are consistent with clinical data.
► Our simulation studies support a role for TH17 in severe asthma.