Molecular Communication Theoretical Modeling and Analysis of SARS-CoV2 Transmission in Human Respiratory System

TL;DR

This paper models SARS-CoV2 transmission in the human respiratory system using molecular communication theory, providing insights into virus migration influenced by mucus flow and receptor interactions, which can inform prevention and treatment strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified molecular communication model of SARS-CoV2 transmission focusing on mucus diffusion and receptor binding, reducing system complexity and aligning with experimental findings.

Findings

Higher mucus flow rate promotes virus migration to lower respiratory tract

Model's predictions match experimental observations

Insights into age-related differences in virus transmission

Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) caused the ongoing pandemic. This pandemic devastated the world by killing more than a million people, as of October 2020. It is imperative to understand the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV2 so that novel and interdisciplinary prevention, diagnostic, and therapeutic techniques could be developed. In this work, we model and analyze the transmission of SARS-CoV2 through the human respiratory tract from a molecular communication perspective. We consider that virus diffusion occurs in the mucus layer so that the shape of the tract does not have a significant effect on the transmission. Hence, this model reduces the inherent complexity of the human respiratory system. We further provide the impulse response of SARS-CoV2-ACE2 receptor binding event to determine the proportion of the virus population reaching different regions of the respiratory tract. Our findings confirm the results in the experimental literature on higher mucus flow rate causing virus migration to the lower respiratory tract. These results are especially important to understand the effect of SARS-CoV2 on the different human populations at different ages who have different mucus flow rates and ACE2 receptor concentrations in the different regions of the respiratory tract.