| Sections on AIDS treatment |
| Treatment |
Anti-retroviral Drugs: Anti-retroviral drugs do not kill the HIV virus and do not cure the AIDS infection, but they can slow the growth of the virus. The following are the list of different types of anti-retroviral drugs that are approved by FDA and that are currently available.
| How anti-retroviral drugs work |
Fusion inhibitors interrupt the HIV virus when the HIV virus attaches itself to the host and breaks through the cell membrane.
NRTIs and NNRTIs act as false nucleotides, which the reverse transcriptase enzymes need to change HIV's genetic material RNA into DNA. The fake nucleotides disrupt the reverse transcription process and inhibit the HIV virus from making a copy of itself.
HIV's genome is inserted into the host's DNA as provirus. After the insertion, an enzyme called protease is used for the final assembly of new copies of HIV virus. Protease inhibitors block the enzyme from creating new copies of the virus.
To more effectively block the HIV virus from replication, oftentimes a combination of different drugs, known as highly active anti-retroviral therapy(HAART), are used.
For example, combination of NRTIs, NNRTI, and protease inhibitors can interrupt the HIV replication at different stages, and therefore they may bring better results.
The HAART has been able to lower patients' measure of HIV virus to undetectable levels, restore the white blood cell counts to normal, and recover the immune system.
However, this does not indicate that HIV is cured, and patients should not neglect to take the drugs as prescribed. Currently there is no panacea for AIDS and HIV.
| Anti-retroviral drugs in development |