Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine in collaboration with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have created a computer program called Pathogen Simulation (PathSim) to study the progression of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in humans.
David Thorley-Lawson, PhD, professor of pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine, is combining PathSim, laboratory methods, and clinical studies to provide a new and powerful approach to understanding EBV and ultimately designing anti-viral therapies.
“PathSim is an agent-based computer program. The agents are the virus itself, and the T and B cells of the patient's immune system,” explains Thorley-Lawson. Using PathSim, Thorley-Lawson can manipulate these agents to simulate EBV infection and persistence in humans. “EBV can infect one person and remain latent – not cause any symptoms. It can infect another person and cause infectious mononucleosis, or, in rare cases, cancer, like Hodgkin's, Burkitt's, and immunoblastic lymphomas,” says Thorley-Lawson.
“Scientists can use PathSim like a video game and change variables, such as number of virus particles or characteristics of the patient's immune cells, to follow the course of disease and observe what drives the virus to either latency or illness.