A Delayed Virus Infection Model with Cell-to-Cell Transmission and CTL Immune Response

Abstract

In this paper, a delayed virus infection model with cell-to-cell transmission and CTL immune response is investigated. In the model, time delay is incorporated into the CTL response. By constructing Lyapunov functionals, global dynamical properties of the two boundary equilibria are established. Our results show that time delay in the CTL response process may lead to sustained oscillation. To further investigate the nature of the oscillation, we apply the method of multiple time scales to calculate the normal form on the center manifold of the model. At the end of the paper, numerical simulations are carried out, which support our theoretical results.