These drugs mimic genetic material and are used to infiltrate HIV's genetic command center to disable it and prevent it from incorporating its DNA into our cells. The third class of drugs, the protease inhibitors, attack HIV at a completely different point, after the virus has already inserted its DNA into the infected cell. These drugs interfere with an enzyme to block the production of new viral particles. The protease inhibitors were so effective that some experts initially speculated long-term use of these drugs could eventually clear the virus out of the body. These drugs are available only to those few patients accepted into clinical trials.
Entry inhibitors work to prevent the virus from entering the human cell in the first place.
Another category of experimental anti-HIV drugs are called integration inhibitors. We do have something to offer HIV patients therapeutically. But there's no magic bullet yet, Hooton said, and about 40,000 people still become infected in the United States every year. The problem of HIV and AIDS worldwide, especially in the developing world, is even more urgent and terrifying, he added. Schouten said he's become more hopeful about the new drugs.