Open Access
March 2010 Estimation of constant and time-varying dynamic parameters of HIV infection in a nonlinear differential equation model
Hua Liang, Hongyu Miao, Hulin Wu
Ann. Appl. Stat. 4(1): 460-483 (March 2010). DOI: 10.1214/09-AOAS290

Abstract

Modeling viral dynamics in HIV/AIDS studies has resulted in a deep understanding of pathogenesis of HIV infection from which novel antiviral treatment guidance and strategies have been derived. Viral dynamics models based on nonlinear differential equations have been proposed and well developed over the past few decades. However, it is quite challenging to use experimental or clinical data to estimate the unknown parameters (both constant and time-varying parameters) in complex nonlinear differential equation models. Therefore, investigators usually fix some parameter values, from the literature or by experience, to obtain only parameter estimates of interest from clinical or experimental data. However, when such prior information is not available, it is desirable to determine all the parameter estimates from data. In this paper we intend to combine the newly developed approaches, a multi-stage smoothing-based (MSSB) method and the spline-enhanced nonlinear least squares (SNLS) approach, to estimate all HIV viral dynamic parameters in a nonlinear differential equation model. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to propose a comparatively thorough procedure, accounting for both efficiency and accuracy, to rigorously estimate all key kinetic parameters in a nonlinear differential equation model of HIV dynamics from clinical data. These parameters include the proliferation rate and death rate of uninfected HIV-targeted cells, the average number of virions produced by an infected cell, and the infection rate which is related to the antiviral treatment effect and is time-varying. To validate the estimation methods, we verified the identifiability of the HIV viral dynamic model and performed simulation studies. We applied the proposed techniques to estimate the key HIV viral dynamic parameters for two individual AIDS patients treated with antiretroviral therapies. We demonstrate that HIV viral dynamics can be well characterized and quantified for individual patients. As a result, personalized treatment decision based on viral dynamic models is possible.

Citation

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Hua Liang. Hongyu Miao. Hulin Wu. "Estimation of constant and time-varying dynamic parameters of HIV infection in a nonlinear differential equation model." Ann. Appl. Stat. 4 (1) 460 - 483, March 2010. https://doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS290

Information

Published: March 2010
First available in Project Euclid: 11 May 2010

zbMATH: 1189.62171
MathSciNet: MR2758180
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1214/09-AOAS290

Keywords: differential algebra , HIV viral dynamics , hybrid optimization , local polynomial smoothing , ordinary differential equation , parameter identifiability , semiparametric regression , time-varying parameter

Rights: Copyright © 2010 Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Vol.4 • No. 1 • March 2010
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