Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) – first implemented in the mid-1990s, NNRTIs target the same stage of HIV replication as NRTIs and bind to the reverse transcriptase produced by HIV, changing the properties of the enzyme’s active site, reducing its activity and thereby inhibiting HIV replication.Protease inhibitors (PIs) – introduced in the 1990s, PIs reduce viral load (the level of HIV in the blood) by competing with HIV proteins to bind with CD4 T-cell proteases, preventing the viral proteins from binding and maturing for release in new viral particles.NRTIs – drugs that inhibit HIV replication by preventing the viral RNA being converted to DNA by the reverse transcriptase enzyme for insertion into the human genome, thus preventing HIV from being replicated.

Since then, seven distinct mechanisms of action for HIV medicines have been approved for the market: 5 Treatments for HIV have come a long way since the first antiretroviral therapy (ART), zidovudine (AZT) – a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) – was released in 1987. 3,4 Around 690,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide in 2020, compared to 1.2 million in 2010. In 2020, approximately 37.6 million people globally were living with HIV of those, 35.9 million were adults and 1.7 million were children under 15 years old. Though there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, treatments have developed such that the majority of people with HIV never progress to developing AIDS. 2 Individuals who contract several such infections experience the most advanced stage of HIV and are diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). 2 Over time, HIV particles destroy the body’s CD4 T cells, reducing a person’s ability to fight pathogens and leaving them vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Instead it infects and utilises human CD4+ T cells – a type of white blood cell which orchestrates, regulates and directly affects antiviral immunity – to replicate and spread through the body. HIV is part of the retrovirus family – specifically, a lentivirus – that is unable to self-replicate. Despite eradication efforts and treatment developments, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains a prevalent medical issue almost 30 years after HIV-1 was first isolated and identified by the Pasteur Institute in France in 1983.

Ftir spectroscopy applications