| In this work, we created three mathematical models to describe HIV infection. Our goal was to investigate the effectiveness of cell-to-cell infection via "virological synapses" through the designed models. The combination of cell-to-cell infection and free-floating virus mechanisms in mathematical models has not been investigated as of yet. We evaluated the two models using three statistical techniques, and decided to use a weighted summation of squares to compare our projected results to published experimental data. The analysis found that the addition of a cell-to-cell infection mechanism did not hinder the predictability of HIV markers for disease progression and showed cell-to-cell infection was most significant early on in infection. In our last model, we further investigated the mechanisms responsible for T cell depletion. Many theories have been published hypothesizing the cause of immune failure. These range from heightened activation of T cells, cytotoxic virions and the eventual destruction due to productive infection. In our model, we observed that the majority of cells die due to the direct result of infection. |
