Nonlocal multiscale modelling of tumour-oncolytic viruses interactions within a heterogeneous fibrous/non-fibrous extracellular matrix

TL;DR

This paper develops a multiscale computational model to study how heterogeneous extracellular matrix components influence tumour-oncolytic virus interactions, revealing the impact of ECM structure on virus spread and therapy outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multiscale model capturing nonlocal cell-ECM interactions and ECM fibre re-arrangement effects on oncolytic virus dynamics.

Findings

ECM fibre structure affects virus spread

Nonlocal interactions influence tumour boundary movement

ECM degradation impacts therapy effectiveness

Abstract

In this study we investigate computationally tumour-oncolytic virus(OV) interactions that take place within a heterogeneous ExtraCellular Matrix (ECM). The ECM is viewed as a mixture of two constitutive phases, namely a fibre phase and a non-fibre phase. The multiscale mathematical model presented here focuses on the nonlocal cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions, and how these interactions might be impacted by the infection of cancer cells with the OV. At macroscale we track the kinetics of cancer cells, virus particles and the ECM. At microscale we track (i) the degradation of ECM by matrix degrading enzymes (MDEs) produced by cancer cells, which further influences the movement of tumour boundary; (ii) the re-arrangement of the microfibres that influences the re-arrangement of macrofibres (i.e., fibres at macroscale). With the help of this new multiscale model, we investigate two questions: (i) whether the infected cancer cell fluxes are the result of local or non-local advection in response to ECM density; and (ii) what is the effect of ECM fibres on the the spatial spread of oncolytic viruses and the outcome of oncolytic virotherapy.