| HIV Drug
Action Using anti-HIV drugs know as RTIs and NNRTIs, HIV replication is suppressed by preventing reverse transcription. Both drugs work in different ways to prevent new viruses being made, although neither kills the virus. Protease inhibitors attack the protease enzyme, preventing new virions from becoming infectious. Both the reverse transcriptase and protease enzymes are targeted by antiretroviral therapy. Two types of anti-HIV drugs target reverse transcriptase: nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors known as RTIs (e.g. AZT, ddC and ddI) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, known as NNRTIs (e.g. nevirapine and loviride). Both types suppress HIV replication by attacking reverse transcriptase, but they do so in different ways. Neither type of drug kills the virus but they do prevent new viruses being made. Protease is attacked by the class of anti-HIV drugs known as the protease inhibitors, e.g. saquinavir, which prevent protease from releasing the individual core proteins from the multi-protein molecule. So the new virions are unable to mature or become infectious. New research is investigating ways of stopping HIV binding and entering human CD4 cells. It is hoped that scientists can identify new drugs capable of stopping this action, which will increase our range of anti-HIV drugs. |
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