Nanotechnology: a magic bullet for HIV AIDS treatment

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has become devastating in last a few years. Nearly 7400 new infection cases are coming every day. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which involves combination of at least three antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, has been used to extend the life span of the HIV-infected patients. HAART has played an important role to reduce mortality rate in the developed countries but in the developing countries condition is still worst with millions of people being infected by this disease. For the improvement of the situation, nanotechnology-based drug system has been explored for the HIV therapeutics. Nanosystems used for HIV therapeutics offer some unique advantage like enhancement of bioavailability, water solubility, stability, and targeting ability of ARV drugs. Main nanotechnology-based systems explored for HIV therapeutics are liposomes, nanoparticles, niosomes, polymeric micelles, and dendrimers. Present manuscript reviews conventional method of HIV therapeutics and recent advances in the field of nanotechnology-based systems for treatment of HIV-AIDS.