Treatment of HIV-1 with Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors ( RTI's) and Protease Inhibitors ( PI's )

Abstract

Treatment with antiretroviral drugs has been reported to delay progression of HIV infection to AIDS, and may even lower the infectiousness of the infectives. This study investigates the effects of treatment of HIV-1 with Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (RTI's) and Protease Inhibitors (PI's) at cellular level. A threshold parameter, Ncrit, which determines the outcome of the infection, is established.If NT < Ncrit, the infection dies out, while if Ncrit < NT, the infection persists where NT is the number of virions produced by each infected CD4+_T cell. The steady states are determined for the models under study. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the stability of the endemic steady states.