Modeling the co-infection of HTLV-2 and HIV-1 in vivo

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are two infectious retroviruses that infect immune cells, CD8⁺ T cells and CD4⁺ T cells, respectively. Multiple studies have revealed co-infected patients with HTLV-2 and HIV-1. In this paper, we formulated a new mathematical model for the co-infection of HTLV-2 and HIV-1 in vivo. The HIV-1-specific B-cell response is included. Six ordinary differential equations made up the model, which depicted the interactions between uninfected CD4⁺ T cells, HIV-1-infected CD4⁺ T cells, HIV-1 particles, uninfected CD8⁺ T cells, HTLV-2-infected CD8⁺ T cells, and HIV-1-specific B cells. We carried out a thorough study of the model, demonstrating the boundedness and nonnegativity of the solutions. Additionally, we determined the equilibrium points and demonstrated, under specific conditions, their global stability. The global asymptotic stability of all equilibria was established by constructing appropriate Lyapunov functions and applying the Lyapunov-LaSalle asymptotic stability theorem. We provide numerical simulations to corroborate the theoretical findings. We investigated how the B-cell response affects the dynamics of HIV-1 and HTLV-2 co-infection. The results suggested that the B-cell response regulates and inhibits the spread of HIV-1. We present a comparison between HTLV-2 or HIV-1 mono-infections and co-infections with HTLV-2 and HIV-1. Our findings support earlier research, suggesting that co-infection with HTLV-2 may be able to maintain the behavior dynamics of the CD4⁺ T cells, inhibit HIV-1 replication, and postpone the onset of AIDS. However, co-infected patients with HTLV-2 and HIV-1 may experience a greater occurrence of HTLV-2-related T-cell malignant diseases.