Effects of viral mutation on cellular dynamics in a monte carlo simulation of HIV immune response model in three dimensions

Summary The cellular dynamics of HIV interaction with the immune system is explored in three-dimensions using a direct Monte Carlo simulation. Viral mutation with probability, Pmut, is considered with immobile and mobile cells. With immobile cells, the viral population becomes larger than that of the helper cells beyond a latency period Tcrit and above a mutation threshold Pcrit. That is at Pmut ≥ Pcrit, { }, with γ ⋍ 0.73 in three dimensions and γ ⋍ 0.88 in 2-D. Very little difference in Pcrit is observed between two and three dimensions. With mobile cells, no power-law is observed for the period of latency, but the difference in Pcrit between two and three dimensions is increased. The time-dependency of the density difference between Viral and Helper cell populations (ρV − ρH) is explored and follows the basic pattern of an immune response to infection. This is markedly more defined than in the 2-D case, where no clear pattern emerges.