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Antiretroviral Medications, Adult Care, and Treatment

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Antiretroviral medication(s): There are currently five main groups of antiretroviral (ARV) medications used to treat HIV. They are called ARV medications because they act against the life cycle of the retrovirus HIV. The five groups are as follows (of note, they are categorized by how they interfere with the HIV life cycle with the sixth group/designation “multi-class combination products” containing different combinations of ARV medications from the main groups working against various components of the HIV life cycle):

  1. 1.

    Entry inhibitors: ARV medications in this class of ARVs effectively interfere with the receptor-mediated entry of the HIV virus into a cell. One subclass of entry inhibitors is the CCR5 antagonists; and the one medication approved for use currently in this subclass is maraviroc, with viroc standing for virus occupying. A new medication in this class, cenicriviroc, is currently in preclinical studies and may be available soon.

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Correspondence to C. William Wester .

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William Wester, C. (2017). Antiretroviral Medications, Adult Care, and Treatment. In: Hope, T., Richman, D., Stevenson, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of AIDS. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9610-6_166-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9610-6_166-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-9610-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9610-6

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