×

Delay effect in a model for virus replication. (English) Zbl 0914.92012

Summary: As biology becomes more quantitative, it appears that the increasing use of mathematics in this area is inevitable. M. A. Nowak and C. R. M. Bangham, [Science 272, 74-79 (1996)] proposed three mathematical models to explore the relation between antiviral immune responses, virus load, and virus diversity. We investigate the delay effect in a model which considers the interaction between a replicating virus and host cells. We assume that there is a finite time lag between infection of a cell and the emission of viral particles. Even with the introduction of this delay, the steady states of the model – as suggested by Nowak and Bangham – remain stable. The result also gives a condition for how the parameter values should be chosen when analysing clinical data so that the model remains tenable.

MSC:

92C50 Medical applications (general)
34K20 Stability theory of functional-differential equations
PDFBibTeX XMLCite