Modeling the Adaptive Immunity and Both Modes of Transmission in HIV Infection

Abstract Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes HIV infection and over time acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It can be spread and transmitted through two fundamental modes, one by virus-to-cell infection, and the other by direct cell-to-cell transmission. In this paper, we propose a new mathematical model that incorporates both modes of transmission and takes into account the role of the adaptive immune response in HIV infection. We first show that the proposed model is mathematically and biologically well posed. Moreover, we prove that the dynamical behavior of the model is fully determined by five threshold parameters. Furthermore, numerical simulations are presented to confirm our theoretical results. View Full-Tex