Ebook: War in the Body: The Evolutionary Arms Race Between HIV and the Human Immune System and the Implications for Vaccines

In the relatively few decades since the introduction of HIV into the human population, variants of the virus have diverged to such an extent that, were the discussion about something other than viruses, said variants could easily be classified as different species. This book will consider these evolutionary variations, as well as the different and, at times, opposing theories attempting to explain them. It will compare and contrast the ways in which the immune system and drugs affect the virus's evolution, and the implications of these for vaccine development. The issue will be explored and explained through "ecological genetics," which postulates that all living organisms have, besides rivals, enemies. This is divergent from the more traditional school of "population genetics," which emphasizes that evolution occurs among rival species (or variants thereof) that compete for niches or resources in a fixed, unreactive environment. Both models will be formulated using mathematical models, which will be included in the book. Finally, it will consider the possibilities for designing a vaccine that blocks HIV from escaping the immune system.

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????In the relatively few decades since the introduction of HIV into the human population, variants of the virus have diverged to such an extent that, were the discussion about something other than viruses, said variants could easily be classified as different species. This book will consider these evolutionary variations, as well as the different and, at times, opposing theories attempting to explain them. It will compare and contrast the ways in which the immune system and drugs affect the virus's evolution, and the implications of these for vaccine development. The issue will be explored and explained through "ecological genetics," which postulates that all living organisms have, besides rivals, enemies. This is divergent from the more traditional school of "population genetics," which emphasizes that evolution occurs among rival species (or variants thereof) that compete for niches or resources in a fixed, unreactive environment. Both models will be formulated using mathematical models, which will be included in the book. Finally, it will consider the possibilities for designing a vaccine that blocks HIV from escaping the immune system.

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????In the relatively few decades since the introduction of HIV into the human population, variants of the virus have diverged to such an extent that, were the discussion about something other than viruses, said variants could easily be classified as different species. This book will consider these evolutionary variations, as well as the different and, at times, opposing theories attempting to explain them. It will compare and contrast the ways in which the immune system and drugs affect the virus's evolution, and the implications of these for vaccine development. The issue will be explored and explained through "ecological genetics," which postulates that all living organisms have, besides rivals, enemies. This is divergent from the more traditional school of "population genetics," which emphasizes that evolution occurs among rival species (or variants thereof) that compete for niches or resources in a fixed, unreactive environment. Both models will be formulated using mathematical models, which will be included in the book. Finally, it will consider the possibilities for designing a vaccine that blocks HIV from escaping the immune system.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xix
Front Matter....Pages 37-37
The HIV Infection Model....Pages 39-47
The CTL Model....Pages 49-53
The Escape Formula....Pages 55-63
Early and Late Escapes....Pages 65-69
Understanding Escape....Pages 71-79
More Topics About Escape from Immune Control....Pages 81-96
HIV’s Cloaking Device: The Fascinating Story of Nef....Pages 97-111
Retroviral Sex and Escape....Pages 113-122
Can a T-Cell Vaccine Block Escape?....Pages 123-134
The STEP Trial, Monkey Trials, and the Future of T-Cell Vaccines....Pages 135-146
Afterword: The RV144 Trial and the Current Status of HIV Vaccine Research....Pages 147-160
Front Matter....Pages 161-168
Short Tutorial on Dynamical Models....Pages 169-173
Deterministic Modeling: A Cautionary Example....Pages 175-175
The Infection Model Defined....Pages 177-181
The CTL Model Defined....Pages 183-185
On Simulation Techniques....Pages 187-190
Derivation of the Escape Formula....Pages 191-193
Introduction....Pages 195-204
Front Matter....Pages 205-213
Statistics of the Mutant Lineage in Classical Genetics....Pages 1-36
Extinction Probabilities with Extra-Poisson Variation....Pages 175-175
Computing the Boundaries....Pages 215-218
Co-existence or Replacement?....Pages 219-221
The Nef-Deletion Threshold Formulas....Pages 223-225
Modeling Retroviral Sex....Pages 227-229
Back Matter....Pages 231-233
....Pages 235-240