Figure 2

The impact of replication and assembly efficiencies on the treatment efficacy and cumulative number of released virus-like particles. (a) TIP design is defined by two parameters: assembly efficacy \(b_a\), which can be changed by addition of PSs in the tiRNAs (blue) compared with vRNA (red), and replication efficacy \(b_r\), which can be improved by shortening of tiRNA with respect to vRNA. (b) The efficacy of tiRNAs (shown as the fraction indicating reduction in the number of released infectious virions) as a function of \(b_a\) and \(b_r\). (c) Pie charts for the cumulative number of released virions and TIPs after 100 days post infection. Red and blue indicate virions and TIPs, respectively. The tiRNA-free control is shown for comparison. The area of each graph is proportional to the total number of released particles (virion+TIP) with respect to the control. For \(b_r\le 1\) the total number of released particles is less than the control, while for \(b_r=2\) the total number of released particles is 3 times that of the control. (b) and (c) are plotted by averaging over 250 simulations with the initial condition (+)\(\hbox {RNA}^{\text{cyt}}=1\), (+)\(\hbox {tiRNA}^{\text{cyt}}=1\) and \(\hbox {Cp}=360\), using parameter values from Table 1.