Stability and Hopf Bifurcation Analysis of an HIV Infection Model in the Evolution of Drug Resistance

In the course of reverse transcription, drug-sensitive strain can mutate to a drug-resistant one. Cell-to-cell transmission is proved to be more efficient than virus-to-cell infection. The population of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLs) can be divided into CTL precursors and CTL effectors. Naive CTL precursors are those that never have contacted antigen, circulating around the body. Once the host is infected, CTL precursors (CTLp) begin to proliferate and differentiate into CTL effectors (CTLe), which have antiviral activity. In this paper, we study an HIV model with drug-sensitive and drug-resistant mixed strains, CTLp and CTLe, both viral and cellular infections. The basic reproduction ratios for each strain are derived and the stability of each feasible equilibrium is analyzed by using Routh–Hurwitz criteria. The periodic solutions may occur near the equilibrium with CTL immune response via Hopf bifurcation. By using normal form theory, we find more information about the limit cycles, such as the amplitude, phase and stability.