Antiviral therapy (ART) is the treatment of HIV with medications. Everyone with HIV is recommended to participate in ART. A combination of HIV medications (HIV regimen) is taken every day by people on ART. Initially people’s regimen includes taking three HIV medications from at least two different drug classes. Taking this combination does the best job at controlling the amount of virus in your body and protecting your immune system. Taking more than one drug also protects against HIV drug resistance. It is important to know that while ART can’t cure HIV, it can help people infected with HIV live longer and healthier lives (it also helps reduce the risk of HIV transmission).
Each class (currently five different classes) of drug attacks the virus at different points in its life cycle. Antiretrovirals are separated by the way an individual drug stops HIV from replicating in the body. These classes include:
- Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs): block reverse transcriptase (an enzyme HIV needs to make copies of itself)
- Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase (NNRTIs): Bind to and later alter reverse transcriptase.
- Protease Inhibitors (PIs): block HIV protease (an enzyme HIV needs to make copies of itself)
- Fusion/Early Inhibitors: block HIV from entering the CD4 cells of the immune system in the first place.
- Integrase Inhibitors: block HIV integrase (an enzyme HIV needs to make copies of itself)
- Pharmacokinetic Enhancers: are used in HIV treatment to increase the effectiveness of an HIV medicine (included in HIV regimen)
- Combination: HIV medicines contain two or more HIV medicines from one or more drug classes into one single pill
https://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/just-diagnosed-with-hiv-aids/treatment-options/overview-of-hiv-treatments/
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