SURFACE THERMODYNAMICS OF ACTUAL INFECTIVITY RANGE IN HIV DYNAMICS

Ilo, C. P., Dim, E. C., Ani, O. I

Abstract: Wide variability in both infection and response to therapy by individuals suffering from HIV and the associated resistance to antiretroviral drugs all relating to wide range of infectivity has been a problem. This article is a study of the surface thermodynamics of actual infectivity range in HIV dynamics. The methodology firstly involved incorporating an expressed thermodynamic transcriptional infectivity model representing the lower value of the infectivity range in an adopted basic viral model, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) and solving the ensued HIV model with a view to validating the infectivity model with the dynamics of the HIV model at transcriptional bifurcation. Secondly, adopted basic HIV model incorporated with formulated thermodynamic infectivity model was also solved in ninety different simulations to ascertain the infectivity value that generates dynamics that aligns with the reality of the literature vis a vis the upper value of the infectivity range. These established both the lower and upper values of the infectivity range of HIV infection. The solution approach involved numerical integration of ensued (ODE) model using MATLAB^TMfunction ode 23 that also makes use of an explicit Runge-Kutta method. As expected, a less than unit value of the Transcriptional Bifurcation Infectivity of 1*10-4 (mL/copies/d ) was obtained, indicating the presence of attractive van der Waals forces between HIV particles and the lymphocytes particles within an infected blood sample. In principle, a greater than one (1) value would have meant repulsion or no interaction. From the ninety simulations, a concise actual thermodynamic infectivity range of 1*10-4mLcopies.d to 3*10-3mLcopies.d which is within historical range of 5.0 x 10-10≤β≤1 mLcopies.d , a proper subset of that of literature was established. The established actual thermodynamic infectivity range is validated fully by the entire historical range of 5.0 x 10-10≤β≤1 (mL/copies/d ). Following expectations, findings show a concise range and that thermodynamic concepts can validly be used to quantify infectivity parameter range. Thus, to overcome wide variability in response to therapy by individuals, it is recommended for pharmaceutical industries to be applied in the area of drug design and drug dosing and in pharmacognosy for drug optimization for complete and efficient infectivity depletion.