OPTIMALLY CONTROLLED TREATMENT STRATEGY USING INTERFERON AND RIBAVIRIN FOR HEPATITIS C.

The main goal of this paper is to determine an optimal treatment strategy using interferon and ribavirin, through mathematical modeling. We formulate a mathematical model using a system of ordinary differential equations, which describes the interaction of target cells (hepatocytes), infected cells, infectious virions, non-infectious virions and the two drugs, namely, interferon and ribavirin. We solve an optimal control problem with an objective functional that minimizes the viral load as well as the side effects of treatment. Finally we derive optimal treatment strategy and then solve it numerically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]