Competing HIV Strains and Immune System Response

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple deterministic model of HIV infection dynamics, capturing key features like immune response and viral mutation, and explores its implications for understanding asymptomatic phases and treatment strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a basic model that reproduces HIV infection features and discusses potential extensions for therapy applications.

Findings

Identification of parameter domains with blip-like dynamics

Model reproduces asymptomatic infection features

Insights into immune response and viral mutation interactions

Abstract

We consider a simple deterministic model which describes an asymmetric competition between an immune system with a specific and powerful response, and a virus with a broad toxicity and fast mutations. Interest in this model relies on the fact that in spite of it simplicity, it reproduces some of the features of the asymptomatic phase of the infection by HIV-1. In particular, there is a domain of parameters in which the dynamics is characterized by the apparition of \blips", associated here to an instability which develops at high virus reproduction rate. Various possible extensions of this simple model are discussed, in particular in view of its applications in the context of HAART therapy.