Code: The role of age, neutrophil infiltration and antibiotics timing in the severity of Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia. Insights from a multi-level mathematical model approach

Bacterial pneumonia is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases and has high mortality in sensitive patients (children, elderly and immunocompromised). Although an infection, the disease alters the alveolar epithelium homeostasis and hinders normal breathing, often with fatal consequences. A special case is hospitalized aged patients, which present a high risk of infection and death because of the community acquired version of the Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia. There is evidence that early antibiotics treatment decreases inflammatory response during pneumonia. Here we investigate mechanistically this strategy using a multi-level mathematical model, which describes the 24 first hours after infection of a single alveolus from the key signaling networks behind activation of epithelium to the dynamics of local immune response. With the model, we simulated pneumonia in aged and young patients subjected to different antibiotics timing.