Using Mathematics to Understand HIV Immune Dynamics

Abstract

Since the early 1980s there has been a tremendous effort made in the mathematical modeling of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus which causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). The approaches in this endeavor have been twofold; they can be separated into the epidemiology of AIDS as a disease and the immunology of HIV as a pathogen (a foreign substance detrimental to the body). There has been much research in both areas; we will limit this presentation to that of the immunology of HIV, and refer the reader to some excellent references on mathematical modeling of the epidemiology of AIDS [1,2,3,4]. Our goal then is to better understand the interaction of HIV and the human immune system for the purpose of testing treatment strategies.