HIV Dynamics With Immune Responses: Perspectives From Mathematical Modeling

Purpose of Review Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected over 36 million individuals worldwide and presents a tremendous public health concern, yet much remains unknown about the effect of immune responses on infection. In this review, we discuss the current status of mathematical modeling of HIV-immune system dynamics and how advances in modeling approaches have contributed to our understanding of the role of immune responses in virus infection. Recent Findings Recent advances provide important quantitative findings about CD8+ T cell and antibody responses. Specifically, these models explain important dynamical features such as the intracellular eclipse phase, and they estimate immune escape rates, the timing of MHC downregulation, and the proportion of virus in antibody-viral complexes. Summary Models of HIV-immune system dynamics, validated with experimental data, advance our quantitative understanding of infection and can generate hypotheses for further experiments. Greater insight on immune responses in HIV infection dynamics can lead to the development of vaccines and ultimately a cure for this infection.