Papers of the Week

Inflammation in response to bacterial endotoxin challenge impacts physiological functions including cardiovascular, thermal, and pain dynamics, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. We develop an innovative mathematical model, incorporating interaction pathways between inflammation and physiological processes observed in response to an endotoxin challenge. We calibrate the model to individual data from 20 subjects in an experimental study of the human inflammatory and physiological responses to endotoxin, and we validate the model against human data from an independent study. Using the model to simulate patient responses to different treatment modalities reveals that a multimodal treatment combining several therapeutic strategies gives the best recovery outcome.