Identification and experimental validation of an HIV model for HAART treated patients

The objective of this paper is to identify the parameters of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) evolution model from a clinical data set of patients treated with two different highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) protocols. After introducing a model with six state variables, a preliminary step considers the reduction of the number of parameters to be identified by means of sensitivity analysis, and then identifiability items are discussed. A nonlinear optimization-based procedure for identification is developed, which divides the unknown parameters into two families: the group dependent and the patient dependent parameters. Numerical results show that the identified model can be individually adapted to each patient and this result is promising for predicting the effects (e.g., failures or successes) of therapeutic actions.