The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America maintains a database of new drugs in development to treat HIV infection. They include new protease inhibitors and more potent, less toxic RT inhibitors, as well as other drugs that interfere with entirely different steps in the virus' lifecycle. These new categories of drugs include:
- Entry inhibitors that interfere with HIV's ability to enter cells
- Integrase inhibitors that interfere with HIV's ability to insert its genes into a cell's normal DNA
- Assembly and budding inhibitors that interfere with the final stage of the HIV life cycle, when new virus particles are released into the bloodstream.
- Cellular metabolism modulators that interfere with the cellular processes needed for HIV replication
- Gene therapy that uses modified genes inserted directly into cells to suppress HIV replication. These cells are designed to produce T cells that are genetically resistant to HIV infection.
In addition, scientists are exploring whether immune modulators help boost the immune response to the virus and may make existing anti-HIV drugs more effective. Therapeutic vaccines also are being evaluated for this purpose and could help reduce the number of anti-HIV drugs needed or the duration of treatment.
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