Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 12, Issue 9, 2006

Significant scientific discoveries spanning the last decade have altered the course of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection within industrialized nations. Drug discovery and evidenced-based pharmacotherapeutic interventions have delayed the development of more severe immune destruction and subsequent progression to the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in a majority of patients. Of the m Read More

Drug therapy for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is highly effective in suppressing viral replication and restoring immune function in patients with HIV. However, this same treatment can also be associated with immunotoxicity. For example, zidovudine and various other antiretroviral agents are capable of causing bone marrow suppression. Agents used to treat opportunistic infections in these individuals, including gan Read More

Despite the fact that neurons are rarely infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), neuronal loss is common in patients with HIV infection, likely due to the effects of viral proteins and inflammatory mediators on these cells. Despite the widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), at least in developed nations, cognitive impairment and other neurological complications of HIV infection Read More

Use of highly active antiretroviral therapy has resulted in significant reductions in HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Current therapeutic approaches target cellular entry, viral transcription, and maturation of newly formed virus. Combination therapy is necessary to provide durable suppression of viral replication and immune reconstitution. A variety of consensus treatment guidelines addressing prophylaxis and treat Read More

Significant progress has been made in the field of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pharmacotherapy. This is a remarkable achievement given that the virus was first recognized in the United States in 1981 and the first antiretroviral (ARV) agent became available in 1987. There are now 20 medications in 4 different classes approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of HIV and the carefully orches Read More

Objective: To discuss prevention and management of adverse drug reactions which result from antiretroviral use in patients infected with HIV. Background: There are four classes of antiretroviral agents used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Side effects to medications are common place and often difficult to avoid. In many cases, research is not able to identify the exact cause of an event. The severity of adverse reactions vari Read More

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection affects close to 40 million individuals worldwide. Since 1981 when the first case reports of individuals dying from a then rare opportunistic infection were published, twenty million people have died from this epidemic. With 3 or more antiretrovirals as the standard of care, the prevalence of single, double and triple-class resistant HIV strains has increased significantly over the last 5 yea Read More

The present armamentarium of 19 antiretroviral drugs licensed for treatment of HIV-1 infection in the U.S. exemplifies preponderance of scientific evidence, which led to improved understanding of the structural and functional, viral and cellular attributes driving HIV-1 infection. The majority of approved drugs (with exception of enfuvirtide), however, focus on two steps of the viral life cycle: reverse transcription and viral matura Read More

Current antiretroviral therapy has had a significant impact on HIV associated morbidity and mortality. Despite these positive outcomes current antiretroviral regimens have significant deficiencies which include multiple drug-drug interactions, high pill burdens, and considerable financial expense. Perhaps the greatest shortcoming is the apparent inability of current therapy to disrupt low level viremia in certain cellular res Read More

The observed inter-individual variation in antiretroviral pharmacokinetics (PK) that results in a wide range of drug exposures from fixed-dose regimens has led to increasing interest in the clinical use of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to individualize dosing of antiretroviral therapy (ART). The focus of this review is to provide an overview of literature available to support therapeutic drug monitoring among the curren Read More

The greatest hope for controlling the expanding HIV epidemic is the development of a preventive HIV vaccine. Despite almost twenty years of effort, the search for an effective HIV vaccine continues at the present time. Advances in the understanding of HIV immunopathogenesis, and especially viral immune evasion mechanisms, have provided important insights into HIV vaccine design. HIV vaccine approaches based s Read More