Effect of the Latent Reservoir on the Evolution of HIV at the Within- and Between-Host Levels.

ABSTRACT: The existence of long-lived reservoirs of latently infected CD4+ T cells is the major barrier to curing HIV, and has been extensively studied in this light. However, the effect of these reservoirs on the evolutionary dynamics of the virus has received little attention. Here, we present a within-host quasispecies model that incorporates a long-lived reservoir, which we then nest into an epidemiological model of HIV dynamics. For biologically plausible parameter values, we find that the presence of a latent reservoir can severely delay evolutionary dynamics within a single host, with longer delays associated with larger relative reservoir sizes and/or homeostatic proliferation of cells within the reservoir. These delays can fundamentally change the dynamics of the virus at the epidemiologica

SUBMITTER: Doekes HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5245781 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature