HIV and AIDS:
Antiretroviral Drugs, Treatments and Medications

While the cure for AIDS may be many years off, continued clinical research results in HIV treatment advances. As HIV/AIDS research lends itself to greater HIV education and AIDS awareness, new medications are developed to help patients living with HIV and AIDS lead longer, stronger lives. Treatments and medications for HIV/AIDS are organized into the following categories:

• Entry Inhibitors (including Fusion Inhibitors) and CCR5 Co-receptor Antagonist
• HIV Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitors
• Multi-Class Combination Drugs
• Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)
• Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)
• Protease Inhibitors (PIs)

Entry Inhibitors (including Fusion Inhibitors) and CCR5 Co-receptor Antagonist

Entry Inhibitors
Entry inhibitors block HIV entry into CD4+ cells.

Fusion inhibitors
The only drug in this class is T-20, which is administered as a twice daily subcutaneous injection. The most common side effect is redness and pain at the site of injection. Rarely, infection can occur at the injection site. There also are reports of generalized allergic reactions.

CCR5 antagonist
Although there were some early concerns of liver inflammation for drugs in this class, MVC appeared to be well tolerated in clinical trials without any specific toxicities attributable to the drug. However, it is a new drug in a new class and the first to actually target the cell. For these reasons, longer follow-up from clinical trials and those followed in the clinic will be very important for assessing the overall safety of the drug.

Brand Name	Generic Names	Manufacturer
Selzentry	maraviroc	Pfizer
Fuzeon	enfuvirtide, T-20	Hoffmann-La Roche & Trimeris