HIV & AIDS Drug Discovery
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS.
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is the final stage of HIV infection.
HIV/AIDS continues to be a world-wide epidemic and is incurable.
Normal T-cells
HIV-infected T-cells
How HIV Causes Disease
HIV life cycle: How HIV infects a cell and replicates itself using reverse transcriptase
How HIV Causes AIDS
HIV attacks the immune system by destroying CD4 positive (CD4+) T cells, a type of white blood cell that is vital to fighting off infection.
Loss of CD4 cells makes it difficult for the body to fight infections and certain cancers.
Without treatment, HIV can gradually destroy the immune system and advance to AIDS.
HIV infecting Helper T-cell
Structure of HIV
Treatment of HIV Infection
The development of drugs for HIV infection began soon after the virus was discovered 25 years ago. Since then, progress has been substantial, but numerous uncertainties persist about the best way to manage this disease.
In the early 1980s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, people with AIDS were not likely to live longer than a few years. Today, there are 31 antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat HIV infection. These treatments do not cure people of HIV or AIDS. Rather, they suppress the virus, even to undetectable levels, but they do not completely eliminate HIV from the body. By suppressing the amount of virus in the body, people infected with HIV can now lead longer and healthier lives. However, they can still transmit the virus and must continuously take antiretroviral drugs in order to maintain their health quality.Antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of HIV infection has improved steadily since the advent of potent combination therapy in 1996.
ART has dramatically reduced HIV-associated morbidity and mortality and has transformed HIV infection into a manageable chronic condition. In addition, ART is highly effective in preventing HIV transmission.
