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There is no complete cure for HIV. The therapies that are available
do not completely eradicate HIV from the body, but they slow the
rate at which HIV reproduces within the body and therefore the rate
at which the disease progresses.
HIV infected individuals on therapy therefore have an extended
quality of life and in many cases are able to lead a normal fulfilled
life for a significant period following infection.
HIV is a virus of the type known as retroviruses. Other retroviruses
include feline immunodeficiency virus, a virus that infects cats,
and simian immunodeficiency virus that infects monkeys and other
non-human primates.
These viruses all contain RNA rather than DNA and they infect host
cells and then use one of their own viral enzymes to generate DNA
which then becomes incorporated into the host cells DNA.
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The host cell then starts to make viral proteins using its own
cellular machinery and these viral proteins associate and then bud
off the host cell as a new viral particle free to infect further
cells.
HIV virus particles budding off from the surface of an infected
immune system cell
Copyright (c) Boehringer Ingelheim
International GmbH
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Scientists are constantly uncovering new information about the
processes of HIV infection and disease and this has an impact on
the design of drugs and therapies for the future with new and hopefully
more effective therapeutic development strategies underway.
The therapies that are currently available are called antiretroviral
and the vast majority act by slowing the replication of the virus
in the host. There are two major ways in which they achieve this.
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