Stability Analysis of an Improved HBV Model with CTL Immune Response

Abstract

To better understand the dynamics of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, we introduce an improved HBV model with standard incidence function, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) immune response, and take into account the effect of the export of precursor CTL cells from the thymus and the role of cytolytic and noncytolytic mechanisms. The local stability of the disease-free equilibrium and the chronic infection equilibrium is obtained via characteristic equations. Furthermore, the global stability of both equilibria is established by using two techniques, the direct Lyapunov method for the disease-free equilibrium and the geometrical approach for the chronic infection equilibrium.