Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals
Open Access

Abstract

Modelling Effective Antiretroviral Therapy that Inhibits HIV Production in the Liver

Hasifa Nampala, Livingstone S Luboobi, Joseph YT Mugisha, Celestino Obua, Matylda Jablonska-Sabuka and Matti Heilio

Among people infected with HIV, liver related complications have become the second leading causes of morbidity and mortality. A mathematical model is developed and analysed to investigate the ability of different combinational therapy to inhibit viral production in liver cells. Therapy efficacy in form of dose-response function is incorporated. Analysis of the model suggests that it is possible to reduce the effective reproductive number below unity provided that therapy efficacy is more than 90%. Simulation results show that combinational therapy of didanosine, lamivudine, atazanavir and nelfinavir is the most effective while zidovudine, stavudine, atazanavir and nelfinavir is the least effective in terms of inhibiting viral production. The findings suggest that mathematical models can be employed to recognize which of the current treatment protocols perform best in controlling HIV replication in the liver.