Centre de Recerca Matemàtica
Title
Stochastic dynamics of HIV-1 infection
Abstract
HIV-1 infected patients are effectively treated with highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). Although HAART forces the viral load to decay below the standard detection limits (e.g., 50 RNA copies/ml), the therapies are unable to suppress completely the virus, and the infection persists in form of a small latent reservoir. One of the evidences of the persistence of the infection are the so-called viral blips, that is, transient episodes of viremia above the detection limit. The emergence mechanisms of these blips are unknown. In this talk we explore the different models that one can find in the literature to explain the dynamics of the infection under anti-retroviral therapy.
Recent research activity has been focused on formulating strategies aimed at removing the latent infection. One such proposal consists of an antigen-stimulation to elevate the rate of activation of the latently infected cells. In this talk we include in one of the models the antigen-stimulation therapy, to study how the life-time of the infection depends on the activation rate of the latently infected cells and possible side-effects.
