Analysis and control of an age-structured HIV-1 epidemic model with different transmission mechanisms

In this paper, we propose a within-host HIV-1 epidemic model with cell-to-virus and cell-to-cell transmission. By mathematical analysis, we obtain the basic reproduction number R-0, which determines the viral persistence and the basic reproduction number R-cc with respect to cell-to-cell transmission which is not strong enough, i.e., it is less than 1. If the basic reproduction number is less than 1, then the viral-free steady state E-0 is globally asymptotically stable, which is proved by fluctuation lemma and comparison method; if R-0 > 1 is greater than 1, the endemic steady state E* is globally asymptotically stable, which is proved by constructing the Lyapunov functional. Antiretoviral therapy is implemented to suppress the viral replication. Protease inhibitors for cell-to-cell transmission play an important role in controlling cell-to-cell infection. Under some circumstances, the effects of the cell-to-cell infection process are more sensitive than those of cell-to-virus transmission.