Antiretroviral Resource Value (ARV)

Drug and medicine ressources

On this website, you can find information on antiretroviral

In a few words, what is an antiretroviral?

There are three main types of antiretroviral drugs, although only two steps in the viral replication process are blocked. Nucleoside analogs, or nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), such as didanosine (ddI, Videx), lamivudine (3TC, Epivir), stavudine (d4T, Zerit), zalcitabine (ddC, Hivid), and zidovudine (AZT, Retrovir), act by inhibiting the enzyme reverse transcriptase. Because a retrovirus is composed of RNA, the virus must make a DNA strand in order to replicate itself. Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme that is essential to making the DNA copy. The nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors are incorporated into the DNA strand. This is a faulty DNA molecule that is incapable of reproducing.

The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), such as delavirdine (Rescriptor), loviride, and nevirapine (Viramune) act by binding directly to the reverse transcriptase molecule, inhibiting its activity.

A fourth class of drugs was under clinical trials in 2003. Called fusion inhibitors, they block HIV from fusing with healthy cells. The first to receive FDA approval will likely be a drug called Enfurvitide.

Because HIV mutates readily, the virus can develop resistance to single drug therapy. However, treatment with drug combinations appears to produce a durable response. Proper treatment appears to slow the progression of HIV infections and reduce the frequency of opportunistic infections. One of the most notable advances in recent years has been the success of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This multidrug approach reduced the risk of opportunistic infections in persons with HIV/AIDS and slowed the progression of the disease and death. Usually, patients receive triple combination therapy, however research in 2003 showed a new once-daily regimen of quadruple therapy effective. The combination included adefovir, lamivudine, didanosine, and efavirenz. In short, the scientific community continues to make rapid advancements in developing and evaluating antiretroviral drug therapy. It is best to keep well informed and frequently check with a physician.