New treatment options for HIV salvage patients: an overview of second generation PIs, NNRTIs, integrase inhibitors and CCR5 antagonists

Abstract

Since 1996, the prognosis of those living with HIV and AIDS has improved significantly due to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Treatment failure can occur clinically, immunologically or virologically. Until recently, treatment options for those individuals harboring resistance to the three initial licensed classes of drug have been limited. These three classes are the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and protease inhibitors (PIs). New drugs are now available in these classes (second generation NNRTIs and novel PIs) as well as new classes of drugs, integrase inhibitors, CCR5 antagonists and fusion inhibitors. If these new drugs are used appropriately with other active antiretroviral agents, it is probable that antiretroviral therapy can achieve the optimum outcome of HIV therapy - durable suppression of HIV viraemia. This article is a review of currently available antiretroviral agents including the new classes and second generation drugs, resistance pathways and treatment options for salvage therapy.