Mathematical model of encapsulated bacteriophage dynamics in the gastrointestinal tract (Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences)

Barril, Bardina and Cuadrado (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) propose a mathematical model of phage therapy with encapsulated bacteriophages in the gastrointestinal tract. Microcapsules protect phages from degradation in acidic environments such as the stomach, but phages inside them cannot infect bacteria, so efficient encapsulation needs microcapsules that are permeable to the phages they carry, a trade-off the model studies in different biological scenarios.