A practical method for simultaneously determining the effective burst sizes and cycle times of viruses.

Abstract

We describe combined analytic and experimental methods for determining reproductive statistics from time-series data. Our computational methods derive four fundamental measures from laboratory experiments: (i) average number of viral daughters; (ii) mean viral cycle time; (iii) standard deviation of the viral cycling time; and (iv) viral doubling time. Taken together, these four reproductive statistics characterize "age-specific fertility," a quantity that provides complete information on the reproduction of the average viral particle. In this paper, we emphasize applications relating to HIV and experiments for assessing cellular tropism, viral phenotypes, antiviral drugs, humoral immunity, and cytotoxic cellular immunity. Nevertheless, our method is quite flexible and applicable to the evaluation of drugs against bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections, antineoplastic agents against cancer cells, and perturbations involving pest and wildlife releases in ecosystems.