Question

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

Answer 1

Drugs used to treat AIDS are known as antiretroviral drugs(ARV). ARV have different mode of action which have been discussed below:

Early Inhibitors: This class of drugs function be preventing the binding, fusion and entry of the HIV into the host cell by blocking the targets of the virus. Examples of this category of drugs include Maraviroc and enfuvirtide.

Protease inhibitors: These drugs inhibit the HIV protease enzyme which is required for the maturation of the virus. Examples of protease inhibitors include Indinavir, Ritonavir, Nelfinavir and Saquinavir.

Nucleoside reverse trancriptase inhibitors: These drugs inhibit the RNA dependent DNA polymerase reverse transcriptase enzyme. Examples of this category of drug is zidovudine, abacavir, lamivudin, abacavir.

gp120 inhibitors: These drugs inhibit the gp120 protein which is required for the uptake of HIV virus into the host cell.