Antiretrovirals, part 1: overview, history, and focus on protease inhibitors

This column is the first in a series on HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs. This first review summarizes the history of HIV/AIDS and the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and highlights why it is important for non-HIV specialists to know about these drugs. There are four broad classes of HIV medications used in varying combinations in HAART: the protease inhibitors, nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and cell membrane fusion inhibitors. This paper reviews the mechanism of action, side effects, toxicities, and drug interactions of the protease inhibitors.