HIV can be cured through antiretroviral drugs.

Types of antiretroviral drugs

Treating HIV involves a combination of medications. The following are the different categories of antiretroviral drugs:

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)

NRTIs block the action of an enzyme called viral reverse transcriptase, which is necessary for HIV to replicate.

Examples of NRTIs include:

• abacavir (Ziagen)

• emtricitabine (Emtriva)

• lamivudine (Lamivudine RBX, Zefix, Zetlam)

• stavudine (Zerit, Stavudin)

• tenofovir (Viread)

• zidovudine (Retrovir)

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)

NNRTIs work similarly to NRTIs. The only difference is that they act on different sites of the enzyme.

Examples of these antiretroviral medications include:

• delavirdine (Rescriptor)

• doravirine (Pifeltro)

• efavirenz (Sustiva)

• etravirine (Intelence)

• nevirapine (Viramune)

• rilpivirine (Edurant)

Protease inhibitors (PIs)

PIs impede another viral enzyme, HIV protease. HIV requires protease to replicate.

Types of PIs include:

• atazanavir (Reyataz)

• darunavir (Prezista)

• fosamprenavir (Lexiva, Telzir)

• indinavir (Crixivan)

• lopinavir (Kaletra)

• ritonavir (Norvir)

• saquinavir (Invirase)

• tipranavir (Aptivus)

Entry inhibitors

As the name suggests, these drugs prevent the virus from entering the targeted cells.

To penetrate immune cells, HIV must fuse to the cells’ receptors, and these drugs work to stop this from happening.

People often take entry inhibitors when other treatments have been unsuccessful.

Examples currently in use include:

• enfuvirtide (Fuzeon)

• maraviroc (Selzentry