Mathematical modeling the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection with antibody-dependent enhancement

The advent and swift global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) transmitted by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have caused massive deaths and economic devastation worldwide. Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is a common phenomenon in virology that directly affects the effectiveness of the vaccine, and there is no fully effective vaccine for diseases. In order to study the potential role of ADE on SARS-CoV-2 infection, we establish the SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics model with ADE. The basic reproduction number is computed. We prove that when $$ , the infection-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable, and the system is uniformly persistent when $$ . We carry out the sensitivity analysis by the partial rank correlation coefficients and the extended version of the Fourier amplitude sensitivity test. Numerical simulations are implemented to illustrate the theoretical results. The potential impact of ADE on SARS-CoV-2 infection is also assessed. Our results show that ADE may accelerate SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, our findings suggest that increasing antibody titers can have the ability to control SARS-CoV-2 infection with ADE, but enhancing the neutralizing power of antibodies may be ineffective to control SARS-CoV-2 infection with ADE. Our study presumably contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection with ADE.