Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25927964›Full record

ArticlePLoS computational biology2015

Optimal Treatment Strategies in the Context of 'Treatment for Prevention' against HIV-1 in Resource-Poor Settings.

Sulav Duwal, Stefanie Winkelmann, Christof Schütte, Max von Kleist

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS computational biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Stochastic Evolutionary Control in Heterogeneous Populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  2. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sulav DuwalDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Junior Research Group "Systems Pharmacology & Disease Control"
Stefanie WinkelmannDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Christof SchütteDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Zuse Institute Berlin, Germany.
Max von KleistDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Junior Research Group "Systems Pharmacology & Disease Control"

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

An estimated 2.7 million new HIV-1 infections occurred in 2010. `Treatment-for-prevention' may strongly prevent HIV-1 transmission. The basic idea is that immediate treatment initiation rapidly decreases virus burden, which reduces the number of transmittable viruses and thereby the probability of infection. However, HIV inevitably develops drug resistance, which leads to virus rebound and nullifies the effect of `treatment-for-prevention' for the time it remains unrecognized. While timely conducted treatment changes may avert periods of viral rebound, necessary treatment options and diagnostics may be lacking in resource-constrained settings. Within this work, we provide a mathematical platform for comparing different treatment paradigms that can be applied to many medical phenomena. We use this platform to optimize two distinct approaches for the treatment of HIV-1: (i) a diagnostic-guided treatment strategy, based on infrequent and patient-specific diagnostic schedules and (ii) a pro-active strategy that allows treatment adaptation prior to diagnostic ascertainment. Both strategies are compared to current clinical protocols (standard of care and the HPTN052 protocol) in terms of patient health, economic means and reduction in HIV-1 onward transmission exemplarily for South Africa. All therapeutic strategies are assessed using a coarse-grained stochastic model of within-host HIV dynamics and pseudo-codes for solving the respective optimal control problems are provided. Our mathematical model suggests that both optimal strategies (i)-(ii) perform better than the current clinical protocols and no treatment in terms of economic means, life prolongation and reduction of HIV-transmission. The optimal diagnostic-guided strategy suggests rare diagnostics and performs similar to the optimal pro-active strategy. Our results suggest that 'treatment-for-prevention' may be further improved using either of the two analyzed treatment paradigms.

Indexed as

Decision Support Systems, ClinicalHIV-1Models, StatisticalComputer SimulationDisease OutbreaksHIV InfectionsHumansMedically Underserved AreaSouth AfricaStochastic ProcessesTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID25927964
PMCPMC4423987

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.