[Future possibilities of drug therapy of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome]

Human Immunodeficiency Virus replication offers several targets for inhibitory compounds, the foremost presently being the HIV reverse transcriptase. Since the beginning of the epidemic three nucleoside analogue drugs--Zidovudine, Didanosine and Zalcitabine--which act at the reverse transcriptase enzyme are already licensed for use in AIDS-therapy, and others--Stavudine, Alovudine and Lamivudine--are still under clinical evaluation. Although there is a very significant research work for newer drugs for HIV-therapy, it seems that for the next future Zidovudine will remain the most important drug of antiretroviral therapy.