Mathematical analysis of an HIV latent infection model including both virus-to-cell infection and cell-to-cell transmission

Abstract

HIV can infect cells via virus-to-cell infection or cell-to-cell viral transmission. These two infection modes may occur in a synergistic way and facilitate viral spread within an infected individual. In this paper, we developed an HIV latent infection model including both modes of transmission and time delays between viral entry and integration or viral production. We analysed the model by defining the basic reproductive number, showing the existence, positivity and boundedness of the solution, and proving the local and global stability of the infection-free and infected steady states. Numerical simulations have been performed to illustrate the theoretical results and evaluate the effects of time delays and fractions of infection leading to latency on the virus dynamics. The estimates of the relative contributions to the HIV latent reservoir and the virus population from the two modes of transmission have also been provided.

Effect of cellular reservoirs and delays on the global dynamics of HIV

“…Model (6)- (11) assumes that, once the HIV contacts a CD4 + T cell, it becomes infected in the same time. Neglecting the time delays is an unrealistic assumption (see, e.g., [29,30]). The aim of this paper is to propose HIV infection models which improve model (6)-(11) by taking into account three time delays, discrete or distributed.…”

Global dynamics of a latent HIV infection model with general incidence function and multiple delays

“…Alshorman et al [2] established the local and global stability of equilibria for system (1). Wang et al [55] further considered both the virus-to-cell infection and cell-to-cell transmission in system (1), and they also gave the proof of the local and global stability of equilibria as well as the persistence result.…”

In vitro methods for testing antiviral drugs

“…Syncytium formation, an HIVinduced cell fusion, was recognized in the early 1990s (Callahan, 1994). Another type of cell-to-cell transmission through tight junctions was shown for HIV (Hübner et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2017) and murine leukemia virus (Sherer et al, 2010). Receptors on tight junctions that specifically recognize hepatitis C virus (Carloni et al, 2012;Ploss et al, 2009) and reovirus (Barton et al, 2001) have been identified.…”