Two types of cytotoxic lymphocyte regulation explain kinetics of immune response to human immunodeficiency virus.

ABSTRACT: The organization of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response at organismal level is poorly understood. We propose a mathematical model describing the interaction between HIV and its host that explains 20 quantitative observations made in HIV-infected individuals and simian immunodeficiency virus-infected monkeys, including acute infection and response to various antiretroviral therapy regimens. The model is built on two modes of CTL activation: direct activation by infected cells and indirect activation by CD4 helper cells activated by small amounts of virus. Effective infection of helper cells by virus leads to a stable chronic infection at high virus load. We assume that CTLs control virus by killing infected cells. We explain the lack of correlation between the CTL number and the virus

SUBMITTER: Rouzine IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1334670 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature