Antiviral therapy in human immunodeficiency virus infections. Current status (Part II)

Part I of this article reviewed the targets against which anti-HIV drugs can be directed, problems in assessing active compounds (e.g. resistance development and use of surrogate end-points). and nucleoside analogues effective against HIV reverse transcriptase. Intensive research is currently being undertaken in laboratories and hospitals to design and evaluate new inhibitors of HIV. In this work, combining different drugs is one important approach, both to decrease toxicity and to offset the rate of resistance development, which seems to be a major problem associated with therapy directed against the ever-changing HIV. Therapeutic vaccines and immunomodulators are other modalities being actively evaluated against HIV and AIDS, although this effort has not yet yielded any licensed treatment. It appears likely that new antiviral drugs and immunotherapies will be forthcoming during the next 5 years, that they will be used in a variety of combinations, and that the treatment options available for opportunistic infections will increase. These developments should improve the survival and the quality of life of patients with HIV infection.