AZT before AIDS

A critical analysis of the pharmacology of AZT and its use in AIDS.

The triphosphorylated form of the nucleoside analogue 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (Zidovudine, AZT) is claimed to interrupt the HIV replication cycle by a selective inhibition of viral reverse transcriptase, thereby preventing the formation of new proviral DNA in permissive, uninfected cells. Given that initial HIV infection of an individual instigates abundant HIV replication from inception unt...

Other AIDS drug regimens beat AZT alone, reduce clinical progression and mortality.

From AZT to treatment as prevention. The evolution of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS

The antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS has been extremely successful in prolonging the lives of people living with HIV. Since the approval of AZT up to the present, over 26 individual compounds have been added to the arsenal available for physicians. The combination of three of these drugs, directed against more than one target was the key to achieve a prolonged suppress...

AZT: Unsafe at Any Dose?

html. file:///Users/dad/Documents/Green/AIDS/ARAS/aras.ab.ca ƒ/test/azt-integrated.html (2 of 45)3/27/2006 6:16:14 PM AZT: Unsafe at Any Dose? “1 patient [out of a grand total of 10 in this clinical trial] suffered from severe anemia resulting from ZDV [AZT] therapy” Lafeuillade A et al. Pilot study of a combination of highly active antiretroviral therapy and cytokines to induce HIV-1 remission...

AZT as a telomerase inhibitor

Telomerase is a highly specialized reverse transcriptase (RT) and the maintenance of telomeric length is determined by this specific enzyme. The human holoenzyme telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein composed by a catalytic subunit, hTERT, an RNA component, hTR, and a group of associated proteins. Telomerase is normally expressed in embryonic cells and is repressed during adulthood. The enzyme is r...