Modeling chronic hepatitis B or C virus infection during antiviral therapy using an analogy to enzyme kinetics: Long-term viral dynamics without rebound and oscillation

The basic model for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection during therapy enables us to analyze short-term viral kinetics. However, the model is not useful for analyzing long-term viral kinetics. Here, I suggest a new model that was obtained by introducing Michaelis–Menten kinetics into the basic model. The new model can exhibit long-term viral kinetics without rebound and oscillation, unlike the basic model. The value of the parameter K in the new model is analogous to the Michaelis constant Km and is predicted to be approximately less than 1010/ml.