Increasing biological accuracy in models of HIV progression while minimising complexity

As knowledge of HIV and factors governing its progression to AIDS has increased, this has driven development of mathematical models, with improved biological realism. Typically, multi-cell versions have replaced simple, initial models of single-cell ordinary differential equation (ODE) type, but at the cost of tractability. This paper shows how dimensional analysis can be used to pare models down to essential components, while retaining key functionality. Further, while the delay between a cell becoming infected and releasing replicated virus particles, has attracted little attention to date, we explicitly incorporate this into the model forms, and assess impact on disease progression.