A reaction-diffusion model for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with a treatment term

Abstract

We present a mathematical study for the development of multiple sclerosis based on a reaction-diffusion system. The model describes interactions among different populations of human cells, motion of immune cells stimulated by cytokines, consumption of myelin sheath due to anomalously activated lymphocytes and its restoration by oligodendrocytes. Successively, we introduce a therapy term representing injection of low-dose IL-2 interleukine. A natural step is then to study the system, investigating the formation of spatial patterns by means of a Turing instability analysis of the problem. In particular, we get spatial patterns oscillating in time that may reproduce brain lesions characteristic of the early stage of the pathology, in both non-treatment and treatment scenarios.