A control systems approach to HIV prevention with impulsive control input

We investigate a control method for HIV dynamics to boost the immune response using a model-based approach. The idea of impulsive control is discussed using a mathematical model. The HIV dynamic model includes the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antiretroviral drugs. Consequently, the dosage of drugs are the control inputs. As they are administrated at discrete time instants this naturally yields an impulsive control problem for a nonlinear continuous-time system. Exploiting this model we emulate recently reported clinical experiments via numerical simulation and analyse the experimental results. It is noted that this modeling approach can help to provide a theoretical explanation of the clinical result. Throughout this paper it is pointed out that the protocol of the experiment could imply the enhancement of the immune response against HIV.