Immunosuppressant treatment dynamics in renal transplant recipients: an iterative modeling approach

Finding the optimal balance between over-suppression and under-suppression of the immune response is difficult to achieve in renal transplant patients, all of whom require lifelong immunosuppression. Our ultimate goal is to apply control theory to adaptively predict the optimal amount of immunosuppression; however, we first need to formulate a biologically realistic model. The process of quantitively modeling biological processes is iterative and often leads to new insights with every iteration. We illustrate this iterative process of modeling for renal transplant recipients infected by BK virus. We analyze and improve on the current mathematical model by modifying it to be more biologically realistic and amenable for designing an adaptive treatment strategy.