Formal reasoning on qualitative models of coinfection of HIV and Tuberculosis and HAART therapy

Background: Several diseases, many of which nowadays pandemic, consist of multifactorial pathologies. Paradigmatic examples come from the immune response to pathogens, in which cases the effects of different infections combine together, yielding complex mutual feedback, often a positive one that boosts infection progression in a scenario that can easily become lethal. HIV is one such infection, which weakens the immune system favouring the insurgence of opportunistic infections, amongst which Tuberculosis (TB). The treatment with antiretroviral therapies has shown effective in reducing mortality. An in-depth understanding of complex systems, like the one consisting of HIV, TB and related therapies, is an open great challenge, on the boundaries of bioinformatics, computational and systems biology. Results: We present a simplified formalisation of the highly dynamic system consisting of HIV, TB and related therapies, at the cellular level. The progression of the disease (AIDS) depends h...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Anil Sorathiya, Andrea Bracciali, Pietro Liò
• Keywords: BMCBI 2010, Immune Response, Infection, Therapies