Antiviruses as therapeutic agents: a mathematical analysis of their potential.

Antiviruses are designed to inhibit virus replication and arrest infections. A particular antivirus derives from a specific virus, on which it depends for propagation. Antiviruses have a natural equivalent in defective interfering particles (DIPs). To obtain design criteria for antiviruses, antivirus therapies for treating virus infections are modelled by a system of equations with continuous dynamics. The results reveal that such therapies can eliminate viruses given either a large but achievable inoculum of antivirus or an outcompeting advantage to the antivirus. Since such therapies are relatively insensitive to many parameters of infections, they may be applicable to many viral diseases.