Autonomous Targeting of Infectious Superspreaders Using Engineered Transmissible Therapies

Metzger, Vincent T.; Lloyd-Smith, James O.; Weinberger, Leor S.

protective vaccine deployed to 80% of the entire population (including 8 out of 10 uninfected high-risk individuals) reduces HIV/AIDS prevalence from 29% to 23.9% in 50 years and a 50% protective vaccine deployed to 95% of the entire population (including virtually all uninfected high-risk individuals) reduces HIV/AIDS prevalence from 29% to 18.7% in 50 years. ART to treat 75% of all new infections would reduce disease prevalence to a level between a 30% and 50% protective vaccine. A striking short-term impact of TIP intervention on HIV incidence, as compared to vaccines and ART, is also projected (Figure 2b) despite extremely rapid rollout of vaccines and ART ( Figure S1 in Text S1). Similar results are obtained when comparing TIP intervention to vaccination and ART in terms of either the fraction-of-individuals-living-with-AIDS or AIDS incidence (Figure S2 in Text S1). Thus, TIPs constructed using parameters recently reported in Phase-I trials [17] , and given to a small fraction of the population (1%), have the potential to swiftly and substantially reduce disease burden at the population level.