Global asymptotic stability of a delay differential equation model for SARS-CoV-2 virus infection mediated by ACE2 receptor protein (Q6167219)

Of concern in this paper is a 4-dimensional delay differential equations model characterizing SARS-CoV-2 infection of target cells mediated by ACE2 receptor protein in vivo. For this model, use is made of compartments describing the concentration of uninfected target cells \(T(t)\), of infected target cells \(I(t)\), of free virions \(v(t)\) and of ACE2 receptors carried by uninfected target cells \(D(t)\), respectively, being assumed that the proliferation of infected cells occurs after a fixed delay \( \tau\) and that the reduction of target cells is of the form \(\beta f(D(t))v(t)T(t)\). In the above, \(\beta\) is an infectivity constant and \(f\) is a strictly increasing and continuously differentiable function such that \(f(0)=0\). It is shown by means of constructing appropriate Lyapunov functionals and using LaSalle's invariance principle that the basic reproduction number is a threshold parameter as far as the global stability of the equilibria (disease-free and endemic, respectively) is concerned, in the usual sense. An outcome of these results is that the eradication of the disease can be achieved by either suitably diminishing the proliferation of ACE2 receptors or by decreasing the infectivity constant \(\beta\).