Answer:
The treatment of HIV/AIDS with medicines is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). It is recommended for everyone who has HIV. The medicines do not cure HIV infection, but they do make it a manageable chronic condition. They also reduce the risk of spreading the virus to others.
There are several different types of HIV/AIDS medicines. Some work by blocking or changing enzymes that HIV needs to make copies of itself. This prevents HIV from copying itself, which reduces the amount of HIV in the body. Several medicines do this:
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) block an enzyme called reverse transcriptase
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) bind to and later change reverse transcriptase
Integrase inhibitors block an enzyme called integrase
Protease inhibitors (PIs) block an enzyme called protease
Some HIV/AIDS medicines interfere with HIV's ability to infect CD4 immune system cells:
Fusion inhibitors block HIV from entering the cells
CCR5 antagonists and post-attachment inhibitors block different molecules on the CD4 cells. To infect a cell, HIV has to bind to two types of molecules on the cell's surface. Blocking either of these molecules prevents HIV from entering the cells.
Attachment inhibitors bind to a specific protein on the outer surface of HIV. This prevents HIV from entering the cell.
In some cases, people take more than one medicine:
Pharmacokinetic enhancers boost the effectiveness of certain HIV/AIDS medicines. A pharmacokinetic enhancer slows the breakdown of the other medicine. This allows that medicine to stay in the body longer at a higher concentration.
Multidrug combinations include a combination of two or more different HIV/AIDS medicines
