Mathematical model for HIV-1 infection with stem cell and immune-therapy (Prof. Noufe Aljahdaly, King Abdulaziz University / CGU)

Title: Mathematical model for HIV-1 infection with stem cell and immune-therapy

Speaker: Noufe Aljahdaly, Department of Mathematics, King Abdulaziz University / CGU

Abstract: The AIDS is a chronic disease. Its most common treatment is the antiretroviral therapy (cART) and the virus can be more effected if the patients stop using cART. The other problem is that the CD8+ T cells might be exhausted by persistent immune activation by cART. The researchers still exert their high efforts to reach the cure of HIV infection. Actually, there are two cases that have achieved a cure of HIV-1 by stem cell (SC) transplantation who are known as London patient and Berlin patient. In this work, we introduced the mathematical model of HIV-1 infection with stem cell therapy. The model was studied theoretically and the numerical solution was obtained to understand the effect of SC therapy. Our results realized that the virus of HIV-1 patient remains undetectable in patient blood after SC transplantation for a period of time. Then, the patient may experience rebound within short period. These results are aligned with two medical cases in the literature. To better understand how London and Berlin patient got a cure by SC therapy while other patients did not achieve the same result, we improved the mathematical model by taking in account the immune system response. We found that the cure of HIV-1 can be achieved by increasing the immune system response during receiving the SC therapy.