Mathematical model for HIV and CD4+ cells dynamics in vivo

Published by International Electronic Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Volume 6 No. 2 2013, 83-103Mathematical models are used to provide insights into the mechanisms and dynamics of the progression of viral infection in vivo. Untangling the dynamics between HIV and CD4+ cellular populations and molecular interactions can be used to investigate the effective points of interventions in the HIV life cycle. With that in mind, we develop and analyze a stochastic model for In-Host HIV dynamics that includes combined therapeutic treatment and intracellular delay between the infection of a cell and the emission of viral particles. The unique feature is that both therapy and the intracellular delay are incorporated into the model. We show the usefulness of our stochastic approach towards modeling combined HIV treatment by obtaining probability generating function, the moment structures of the healthy CD4+ cell, and the virus particles at any time t and the probability of virus clearance. Our analysis show that, when it is assumed that the drug is not completely effective, as is the case of HIV in vivo, the predicted rate of decline in plasma HIV virus concentration depends on three factors: the initial viral load before therapeutic intervention, the efficacy of therapy and the length of the intracellular delay.Mathematical models are used to provide insights into the mechanisms and dynamics of the progression of viral infection in vivo. Untangling the dynamics between HIV and CD4+ cellular populations and molecular interactions can be used to investigate the effective points of interventions in the HIV life cycle. With that in mind, we develop and analyze a stochastic model for In-Host HIV dynamics that includes combined therapeutic treatment and intracellular delay between the infection of a cell and the emission of viral particles. The unique feature is that both therapy and the intracellular delay are incorporated into the model. We show the usefulness of our stochastic approach towards modeling combined HIV treatment by obtaining probability generating function, the moment structures of the healthy CD4+ cell, and the virus particles at any time t and the probability of virus clearance. Our analysis show that, when it is assumed that the drug is not completely effective, as is the case of HIV in vivo, the predicted rate of decline in plasma HIV virus concentration depends on three factors: the initial viral load before therapeutic intervention, the efficacy of therapy and the length of the intracellular delay

Virus Replication as a Phenotypic Version of Polynucleotide Evolution

In this paper we revisit and adapt to viral evolution an approach based on the theory of branching process advanced by Demetrius, Schuster and Sigmund ("Polynucleotide evolution and branching processes", Bull. Math. Biol. 46 (1985) 239-262), in their study of polynucleotide evolution. By taking into account beneficial effects we obtain a non-trivial multivariate generalization of their single-type branching process model. Perturbative techniques allows us to obtain analytical asymptotic expressions for the main global parameters of the model which lead to the following rigorous results: (i) a new criterion for "no sure extinction", (ii) a generalization and proof, for this particular class of models, of the lethal mutagenesis criterion proposed by Bull, Sanju\'an and Wilke ("Theory of lethal mutagenesis for viruses", J. Virology 18 (2007) 2930-2939), (iii) a new proposal for the notion of relaxation time with a quantitative prescription for its evaluation, (iv) the quantitative description of the evolution of the expected values in in four distinct "stages": extinction threshold, lethal mutagenesis, stationary "equilibrium" and transient. Finally, based on these quantitative results we are able to draw some qualitative conclusions.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1110.336

A tug-of-war between driver and passenger mutations in cancer and other adaptive processes

Cancer progression is an example of a rapid adaptive process where evolving new traits is essential for survival and requires a high mutation rate. Precancerous cells acquire a few key mutations that drive rapid population growth and carcinogenesis. Cancer genomics demonstrates that these few 'driver' mutations occur alongside thousands of random 'passenger' mutations-a natural consequence of cancer's elevated mutation rate. Some passengers can be deleterious to cancer cells, yet have been largely ignored in cancer research. In population genetics, however, the accumulation of mildly deleterious mutations has been shown to cause population meltdown. Here we develop a stochastic population model where beneficial drivers engage in a tug-of-war with frequent mildly deleterious passengers. These passengers present a barrier to cancer progression that is described by a critical population size, below which most lesions fail to progress, and a critical mutation rate, above which cancers meltdown. We find support for the model in cancer age-incidence and cancer genomics data that also allow us to estimate the fitness advantage of drivers and fitness costs of passengers. We identify two regimes of adaptive evolutionary dynamics and use these regimes to rationalize successes and failures of different treatment strategies. We find that a tumor's load of deleterious passengers can explain previously paradoxical treatment outcomes and suggest that it could potentially serve as a biomarker of response to mutagenic therapies. Collective deleterious effect of passengers is currently an unexploited therapeutic target. We discuss how their effects might be exacerbated by both current and future therapies

Applications Of Operations Research/Statistics In Infection Outbreak Management

Operations Research (OR) can be identified as the discipline that uses statistics, mathematics, computer-modelling and similar science methodology for decision making (Luss, Rosenwein, 1997). OR, powered with statistics and models, is a high potential engine for use in many areas that require evidence-based or model-based decision making. One of the most promising areas is specifically the infection outbreak management. Surprisingly, very little OR/statistics research has been aimed at infection outbreak management; usually, other general epidemiology issues were tackled in models. However, OR/statistics models for use in the infection outbreak management exist and can be effectively used in public policy and outbreak management practice. Probably, key reasons for that little involvement of OR/statistics in the infection outbreaks management is low awareness among the specialist community of OR/statistics use and benefits for their decision making. Up to the moment, there is lack of contemporary review of OR/statistics-applied models used for the infection outbreak management decision making. The present paper aimed at filling that gap and providing two benefits to involved health care managers and academics: first, developing awareness on the use and benefits of OR/statistics models for the infection outbreak management decision making, and second, for plotting the current state of affairs to highlight research opportunities for developing the field by academics and epidemic control professionals

Does Mutational Robustness Inhibit Extinction by Lethal Mutagenesis in Viral Populations?

Lethal mutagenesis is a promising new antiviral therapy that kills a virus by raising its mutation rate. One potential shortcoming of lethal mutagenesis is that viruses may resist the treatment by evolving genomes with increased robustness to mutations. Here, we investigate to what extent mutational robustness can inhibit extinction by lethal mutagenesis in viruses, using both simple toy models and more biophysically realistic models based on RNA secondary-structure folding. We show that although the evolution of greater robustness may be promoted by increasing the mutation rate of a viral population, such evolution is unlikely to greatly increase the mutation rate required for certain extinction. Using an analytic multi-type branching process model, we investigate whether the evolution of robustness can be relevant on the time scales on which extinction takes place. We find that the evolution of robustness matters only when initial viral population sizes are small and deleterious mutation rates are only slightly above the level at which extinction can occur. The stochastic calculations are in good agreement with simulations of self-replicating RNA sequences that have to fold into a specific secondary structure to reproduce. We conclude that the evolution of mutational robustness is in most cases unlikely to prevent the extinction of viruses by lethal mutagenesis