A Global Analysis of Delayed SARS-CoV-2/Cancer Model with Immune Response

Afnan Al Agha, Safiya Alshehaiween, Ahmed Elaiw and Matuka Alshaikh
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Afnan Al Agha: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Safiya Alshehaiween: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Taibah University, P.O. Box 344, Medina 42353, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Elaiw: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Matuka Alshaikh: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21974, Saudi Arabia

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-27

Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It appeared in China in late 2019 and rapidly spread to most countries of the world. Cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 are at higher risk of developing severe infection and death. This risk increases further in the presence of lymphopenia affecting the lymphocytes count. Here, we develop a delayed within-host SARS-CoV-2/cancer model. The model describes the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in cancer patients and its effect on the functionality of immune responses. The model considers the time delays that affect the growth rates of healthy epithelial cells and cancer cells. We provide a detailed analysis of the model by proving the nonnegativity and boundedness of the solutions, finding steady states, and showing the global stability of the different steady states. We perform numerical simulations to highlight some important observations. The results indicate that increasing the time delay in the growth rate of cancer cells reduced the size of tumors and decreased the likelihood of deterioration in the condition of SARS-CoV-2/cancer patients. On the other hand, lymphopenia increased the concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 particles and cancer cells, which worsened the condition of the patient.

Keywords: cancer; SARS-CoV-2; delays; CTLs; antibodies; global stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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