Finite duration HIV treatment using mixed antiretroviral therapy and immunotherapy

Proposing a finite duration HIV treatment strategy is the main goal of the presented paper. Long-term treatments cause many problems, such as drug resistance. Latently infected cells have an important role in HIV dynamics. The used HIV model not only consists of target cells and infected cells and viruses but also includes latently infected cells. It is shown that the initial population of latently infected cells affects the final population of viruses. The dynamics of the model are examined by extracting equilibrium points and their stability. Two types of equilibrium points are derived, virus-free and viral equilibrium points. It is proved that the existence of a stable virus-free equilibrium point is essential for finite duration treatment. Also, the effect of immune system ability in HIV treatment is explored by considering the effect of changing the parameters of the system in its dynamics. It is shown that in some immune system abilities, HIV is cured without any external treatment. The number of equilibrium points of the system changes with changes in the immune system ability. Based on this fact, a novel mixed antiretroviral therapy and immunotherapy are presented. Antiretroviral therapy affects the states of the system, and immunotherapy affects the parameters of the system. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the novel presented treatment strategy.