Some Good News for People Living with HIV
There was some good news last week about promising antiviral drugs that could significantly expand treatment options for people living with HIV. The findings were presented at the 14th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Los Angeles.
Two of the experimental drugs discussed at CROI are from entirely new classes of HIV drugs. New classes of drugs are especially important for HIV-infected persons who are running out of treatment options. Their options may be limited because they are infected with HIV that is highly resistant to many of the currently available drugs. Or they may also have experienced side effects that made some meds intolerable. For these persons, using new classes of drugs may offer the best chance of bringing HIV infection under control.
One of these new drugs – raltegravir or MK-0518 – is in a drug class called integrase inhibitors. When HIV makes copies of itself, it uses a chemical called integrase to insert (integrate) its genetic material (DNA) into the cell’s control center, called the nucleus. Once HIV’s genetic materials been integrated into the cell’s own DNA, the cell can become a mini-factory for making new HIV. Integrase inhibitors disrupt this process by interfering with – inhibiting – the activity of integrase.
Another new drug called maraviroc is in a class known as CCR5 blockers. The drugs in this class are designed to stop HIV from binding to a protein called CCR5 on the surface of cells. By disrupting this binding process, the CCR5 blockers can protect cells from being infected with the virus.
Since the studies done to date have shown strong evidence that raltegravir and maraviroc are safe and effective, drug makers have been allowed to offer expanded access programs (EAPs) for both drugs. EAPs make promising experimental drugs available to a limited extent before they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The March issue of AIDS Action’s Forward Living newsletter has a feature article about EAPs, including more information about raltegravir and maraviroc.
