Abstract
Introduction
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a double-stranded RNA virus from the
Retroviridae family. Discovered in 1983, HIV is responsible for the Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Its mechanisms of action and transmission
were described in the years following its discovery, and the first treatment,
called azidothymidine or azidovudine, was marketed in 1987 as a monotherapy. A
new antiretroviral has been marketed nearly every year since 1992.
Tritherapies associating several antiretrovirals were marketed in 1996.
Even if tritherapies have significantly reduced mortality from AIDS in the
developed countries, worldwide mortality is still high because treatment is
not readily available in the developing countries. In 2007, an estimated 2.1
million people died of AIDS worldwide and there were 2.5 million new
infections. The prevalence of the disease is 33.2 million people. The figure
below shows the distribution of seropositive individuals throughout the world.
Most of the antiretroviral drugs being marketed today target inhibition of two
types of enzymes that are crucial to the HIV replication cycle: reverse
transcriptase and protease. Recently new therapeutic classes have been
developed to inhibit other steps in the cycle. Indeed, as seen in the figure
and table below, the life cycle of the virus is complex and involves many
steps, each of which is a new potential target for therapy.
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