Hepatitis C virus infection is blocked by HMGB1: A new nonlocal and time-delayed reaction-diffusion model

This paper is devoted to developing a nonlocal and time-delayed reaction-diffusion model which makes contributions to understanding the mechanism of block effect on HCV by high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). Then basic reproduction number R0 is established. The existence of HMGB1 can make R0<1, that is, can induce the extinction of virus. Further, threshold dynamics are investigated in terms of R0 in a bounded spatial domain. From the biological perspective, threshold-type result can predict whether the disease will die out or persist. To investigate the invasion speed of the infectious disease, the existence of traveling waves is investigated in an unbounded spatial domain. Our results imply that the nonlocal time delay cannot change threshold dynamics, while it can slow down the wave speed of virus.