Avert.org states that more than 468,000 Americans have AIDS. Ongoing studies attempt to find new and better drugs with decreased side effects to treat the disease. Scientists now realize that patients who live longer have a greater chance of the virus becoming resistant to their medications. According to the Mayo Clinic, most of the people receiving treatment worldwide are resistant to at least one drug and many do not respond to the standard three-drug combination. However, several new drugs on the market are showing great promise in keeping patients with HIV and AIDS alive much longer than in the past.
Fusion Inhibitors
The alarming trend of drug-resistant HIV has brought at least two new types of drugs to market. The first drug, called enfuvirtide, is the only member in this new class of drugs called fusion inhibitors. It works to suppress the resistant strains of HIV by preventing the membrane of the virus from connecting to surrounding healthy cells. This drug is administered by injection and used in combination with other drugs for people with advanced progression of HIV and who have become resistant to other drugs.
Integrase Inhibitors
Raltegravir is the second in this new type of drugs aimed at treating resistant strains of the virus and is the only drug in its class approved for use in the United States. This drug works only in combination with other antiretrovirals. This is the first drug to block replication of the HIV integrase enzyme and keep it from inserting itself into human DNA. Common side effects include diarrhea, nausea, headache and fever.
NRTIs
NRTIs, or Nucleoside Analogue Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, were the first antiretroviral drug released on the market, and they work by inhibiting the replication of a portion of the virus called reverse transcriptase. Zidovudine is one of the most commonly used NRTIs, but it has been known to cause side effects such as bone marrow suppression. A newer drug, Emtriva, has shown promise treating not only HIV but Hepatitis B.
Protease Inhibitors
Protease Inhibitors work by attacking the virus in the later stages of its life cycle, causing the virus to become confused and noninfectious. Examples of this class of drug include saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir, nelfinavir and amprenavir. Side effects can include headache, weakness, nausea, diarrhea and stomach discomfort. Protease Inhibitors also interact unfavorably with many drugs due to interaction with proteins that help the liver metabolize drugs.
