Thresholds and bistability in virus-immune dynamics. (April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Shaoli; Xu, Fei
• Is Part Of: Applied mathematics letters. Volume 78(2018)
• Page Start: 105
• Page End: 111
• Publication Date: 2018-04
• Subjects: Virus-immune dynamics -- Post-treatment control threshold -- Elite control threshold -- Bistability; Applied mathematics -- Periodicals; 519.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aml.2017.11.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0893-9659

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate an impaired or immunosuppressive HIV infection model. By analyzing the model, we obtain two thresholds R 0 and R c . It is shown that R 0 determines whether the virus dies out. We also obtain the post-treatment control threshold and the elite control threshold. There exists a bistable interval between these two thresholds. When R 0 > R c, immune intensity is in the bistable interval, which implies that the system has bistable behavior and as such the virus is under post-treatment control. On the other hand, when the immune intensity is greater than the elite immune control threshold, virus will be under elite control. Our investigation shows that when antiviral therapy cannot completely clear the virus, introducing immunotherapy is an optimal choice.