Numerical modeling of the immune response to human papillomavirus infection

Abstract

In this work, we develop mathematical models describing the interactions between Human papillomavirus (HPV)‐infected cells and the immune system. We start with simple models in order to capture the most important features of such interactions. Then, we proceed to consider fundamental immunological characteristics for the models. For the numerical counterpart, we develop and implement efficient numerical discretizations of our models in order to illustrate the behavior of the schemes using different initial conditions, which represent the degree of infection of the disease. Understanding such interactions is of paramount importance for the prevention and the potential eradication of the infection. One main goal of this research is to analyze how and under what circumstances the immune system succeeds in eliminating HPV‐infected cells.