Question

What are some of the strategies of the antiretroviral drugs used in AIDS treatment?

Answer 1

The aim of antiretroviral therapy is to durably suppress viral load to an undetectable level in order to restore and maintain immunity function which is indicated by a rise in CD4 cell count,extended survival and limit transmission.

Antiretroviral(ART) therapy refers to the use of pharmacologic agents that have specific inhibiting effect on HIV replication at different stages in HIV life cycle.

ART agents commonly belong to 5 distict classes of drugs:

1. The nucleoside and nucleotide RT inhibitors

2.protease inhibitors

3.fusion inhibitors

4.the CRR5 coreceptor antagonist

6.integrase inhibitors

Decision of ART therapy depends upon the CD4 count in each indivisual.

Protease inhibitors:HIV1 protease activity -critical for terminal maturation of infectious virions-protease inhibitors compete this enzyme,preventing maturation of virions capable of infecting other cells.

Nucleoside RT inhibitors-inhibition of RNA dependent DNA polymerase.

Other ART drugs:

Zn finger inhibitors

Antisense antiviral

Cellular inhibitors

Sulfated polysachharides