AIDS: our research illness

There is no cure known to AIDS. No treatment completely eliminates the body's virus. However, there are available AIDS treatments that help maintain the high CD4 count and improve the quality of life of the patients. Drugs against HIV are of different kinds, and are divided according to their function and utility to attack the virus. The different types we find are:

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-Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI): This class of medications blocks reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that needs HIV to reproduce; and therefore the viral RNA will no longer be able to pass to viral DNA.

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-Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase(NNRTI): This class of medications binds and then alters reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that needs HIV to reproduce.

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-Protase inhibitor (PI): This class of medications blocks HIV protease, an enzyme that needs HIV to reproduce.

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- Fusion inhibitors: This type of medication prevents HIV from entering the CD4 lymphocytes of the immune system.

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-Entry inhibitors: This type of medication blocks proteins in CD4 lymphocytes that HIV needs to penetrate.

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-Integrase inhibitors: This type of medication blocks the integrase of HIV, an enzyme that needs HIV to integrate viral DNA into the DNA of the infected cell so that it can reproduce the virus.

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- Pharmacokinetic Intensifiers: This class of medications is used in the treatment of HIV to increase the efficacy of a drug against HIV included in a regime against this virus.

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-Combination of medications against HIV: This class of medications contains two or more HIV-mediated medications of one or more classes.

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The most commonly used treatment is highly active antiretroviral

therapy (HAART). It is a combination of several antiretroviral

drugs, where the purpose is to prevent the virus from multiplying.

This method manages to reduce the number of HIV particles in the blood,

allowing the CD4 count to remain high, which leads to improving and

prolonging the patient's life. Although it is necessary to keep in mind that

the patient can continue transmitting the virus.

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This therapy has its drawbacks, and it is that the specific side effects of

each drug that make up the therapy, can appear. Among the most common:

nausea, headache, weakness, general malaise, and accumulation of fat in

the back and abdomen. When the drugs are used for a long time, the risk of

a heart attack increases.