Modelling the cellular-level interaction between the immune system and HIV : research in action

Abstract

Mathematical models have been shown to provide substantial insights into our understanding of the dynamics of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at both the population and cellular level. Collaboration between experimentalists and mathematical modellers has allowed models to be evaluated and parameterized, and used to test several key hypotheses, for example, the role of the immune system in the progression of disease and how HIV evolves resistance to antiretroviral treatment. An explosion of the application of mathematical models to the cellular aspect of infection was seen in the 1980s and thus far success in describing HIV has been due, in part, to the availability of reliable experimental data. However, there remains a number of puzzling quantitative features. What is required is a type of theorydriven experimental, statistical analysis, and a mathematical modelling approach to solving these challenges. In this article we review how mathematical models are being applied to understand the cellular-level interactions between the human immunodeficiency virus and the immune system.