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Research Article

Analysis of HIV latent infection model with multiple infection stages and different drug classes

ORCID Icon, &
Pages 713-732 | Received 17 Nov 2021, Accepted 09 Aug 2022, Published online: 20 Oct 2022
 

Abstract

Latently infected CD4+ T cells represent one of the major obstacles to HIV eradication even after receiving prolonged highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). Long-term use of HAART causes the emergence of drug-resistant virus which is then involved in HIV transmission. In this paper, we develop mathematical HIV models with staged disease progression by incorporating entry inhibitor and latently infected cells. We find that entry inhibitor has the same effect as protease inhibitor on the model dynamics and therefore would benefit HIV patients who developed resistance to many of current anti-HIV medications. Numerical simulations illustrate the theoretical results and show that the virus and latently infected cells reach an infected steady state in the absence of treatment and are eliminated under treatment whereas the model including homeostatic proliferation of latently infected cells maintains the virus at low level during suppressive treatment. Therefore, complete cure of HIV needs complete eradication of latent reservoirs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).