Identifying determinants of persistent MRSA bacteremia using mathematical modeling
Fig 2
Schematic diagram of the mathematical model of in vivo MRSA populations and ensemble modeling.
(A) The diagram depicts the two state variables as blue ovals, whose abundances are controlled by growth, death by antibiotics, clearance by the immune system (Im), as well as switch rates. Antibiotic treatment, vancomycin (Van), affects growth rates of both normal and persister and killing of the normal but not persister bacterium. The two differential equations are shown below the diagram. Van and Im are a binary value of 0 or 1 indicating absence or presence. (B) Algorithm for ensemble modeling to extract the sets of parameters (ensemble) using two criteria. All the models extracted had similar minimum inoculum doses to establish infection between around 100 to 1,000 colony-forming unit per arbitrary unit (cfu/a.u.). The parameter values randomized or fixed during the ensemble modeling are shown in Table 2.