Modeling the dynamics of Hepatitis C Virus with combined antiviral drug therapy: Interferon and Ribavirin

TL;DR

This paper presents a mathematical model of Hepatitis C Virus dynamics under combined interferon and ribavirin therapy, explaining viral load decline patterns and identifying conditions for viral eradication.

Contribution

It introduces a novel four-equation model incorporating both drugs and defines a critical drug efficiency parameter for viral eradication.

Findings

HCV can be eradicated if drug efficiency exceeds a critical threshold.

The model explains biphasic and triphasic viral load declines.

A new steady state for virions is identified at lower drug efficiencies.

Abstract

A mathematical modeling of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) dynamics has been presented in this paper. The proposed model, which involves four coupled ordinary differential equations, describes the interaction of target cells (hepatocytes), infected cells, infectious virions and non-infectious virions. The model takes into consideration the addition of ribavirin to interferon therapy and explains the dynamics regarding biphasic and triphasic decline of viral load in the model. A critical drug efficiency parameter has been defined and it is shown that for efficiencies above this critical value, HCV is eradicated whereas for efficiencies lower this critical value, a new steady state for infectious virions is reached, which is lower than the previous steady state.