Celebrating Advancements in HIV/AIDS For World AIDS Day

A Look At Current Treatment

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Because the HIV virus can quickly become resistant to one type of medication, most patients are prescribed several HIV medications. These can be taken separately, however, today, there are many combination pills that contain several HIV medications, reducing how many pills a patient must take.

The first FDA-approved combination pill came out in 2006 and was known by the name Atripla. Today, there are dozens of generic and brand-name combination pills. Below are the five antiretroviral drugs available today. Most are available either as stand-alone drugs or as a part of combination pills:

• Nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). NRTIs stop HIV-containing cells from making copies of themselves. They do this by disrupting the reconstruction of the virus’ DNA chain. Brand names include Ziagen, Epivir, Emtriva, Retrovir, Viread and Vemlidy.
• Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs). INSTIs work by disabling the enzyme that HIV uses to insert its own DNA into human DNA. Brand names include Isentress and Tivicay. It is also a part of the combination drug Biktarvy.
• Protease inhibitors (PIs). PIs work by disabling an enzyme that is crucial to the life cycle of the HIV virus. Brand names include Reyataz, Prezista, Lexiva and Invirase. It is also part of the combination pill Evotaz.
• Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). NNRTIs work by stopping the HIV virus from making copies of itself. They do this by disrupting an enzyme needed for that process. Brand names include Sustiva, Edurant, Intelence and Viramune.
• Entry Inhibitors. Entry inhibitors stop HIV from entering CD4 T cells – white blood cells responsible for alerting other immunity cells to the presence of a bacteria or virus. Brand names include Fuzeon, Selzentry, Trugarzo.

One of the most revolutionary treatments that has been greatly impactful in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS is Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP can stop HIV from replicating in the body and is recommended for anyone at risk of contracting HIV. If you’d like to learn more about PrEP, MADAMENOIRE covers the medication here.