Distinguishing epidemiological dependent from treatment (resistance) dependent HIV mutations: problem statement

HIV is a rapidly evolving virus leading to AIDS, a disease responsible for an estimated 2 million deaths in 2007. For optimal guidance of a patient's therapy and for the design of more effective drugs, it is important to understand how the virus becomes resistant to the current drugs and how this understanding can be used to predict therapy response. However, it is difficult to make a distinction between mutations that are inherited through epidemiological dependency and mutations that are being newly selected by a particular treatment selective pressure. Several approaches exist to separately model the two processes responsible for these mutations, but they experience problems when both processes are simultaneously at work. An integrated approach that takes into account both processes will lead to an improved understanding of the resistance development of the virus and the long-term spread of drug resistance.status: publishe