HIV Treatment

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No treatment is available that cures AIDS, but a number of drugs have been developed that suppress HIV replication, thereby preventing the destruction of the immune system. Known as antiretroviral therapy, these drugs target different stages in the life cycle of HIV. There are four main classes of drugs used against HIV: nucleoside analogues, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, and fusion inhibitors. Nucleoside analogues and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors use different mechanisms to block the action of the enzyme reverse transcriptase. Protease inhibitors interfere with protease, an enzyme vital to the formation of new HIV. When these drugs block protease, defective HIV forms that is unable to infect new cells. In 2003 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of enfuvirtide, sold under the brand name Fuzeon. This drug belongs to a new class of drugs called fusion inhibitors, which prevent the binding or fusion of HIV to lymphocytes.

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