Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a persistent human retrovirus characterized by life-long infection and risk of developing HAM/TSP, a progressive neurological and inflammatory disease. Despite extensive studies of HTLV-I, a complete understanding of the viral dynamics has been elusive. Previous mathematical models are unable to fully explain experimental observations. Motivated by a new hypothesis for the mechanism of HTLV-I infection, a three dimensional compartmental model of ordinary differential equations is constructed that focusses on the highly dynamic interactions among populations of healthy, latently infected, and actively infected target cells. Results from mathematical and numerical investigations give rise to relevant biological interpretations. Comparisons of these results with experimental observations allow us to assess the validity of the original hypothesis. Our findings provide valuable insights to the infection and persistence of HTLV-I in vivo and motivate future mathematical and experimental work. / Applied Mathematics
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1397 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lim, Aaron Guanliang |
| Contributors | Li, Michael Y. (Mathematical and Statistical Sciences), Muldowney, James S. (Mathematical and Statistical Sciences), Wang, Hao (Mathematical and Statistical Sciences), Jutta Preiksaitis (Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases) |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 4760770 bytes, application/pdf |
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