Entry inhibitors represent a new class of antiretroviral agents for the treatment of infection with HIV-1. While resistance to other HIV drug classes has been well described, resistance to this new class is still ill defined despite considerable clinical use. Several potential mechanisms have been proposed: tropism switching (utilization of CXCR4 instead of CCR5 for entry), increased affinity f...

As in previous years, the 9th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections provided a forum for a stateof-the-art update in antiretroviral therapy. Highlights included the status of new antiretroviral agents from both existing and new drug classes; presentation of trials in antiretroviral-naive and antiretroviral-experienced persons; updates on strategic approaches to therapy, includ...

Recently, antiretroviral agents directed at several steps involved in viral entry have been shown to reduce viral replication in vitro and in vivo. We have demonstrated a high level of in vitro synergistic antiretroviral activity for two entry inhibitors that are directed at sequential steps in the entry process.

The development of drug resistance and cross-resistance continues to pose a challenge to successful long-term antiretroviral therapy despite the availability of new antiretroviral agents. The genetic barrier to resistance of a regimen does not directly correlate with its effectiveness. For some regimens with a low genetic barrier to resistance, however, the emergence of only 1 or 2 key resistan...

Fusion inhibitors are novel antiretroviral agents, administered as subcutaneous injections, approved for use in treatment-experienced HIV-infected patients. HIV-infected patients are at increased risk for Staphylococcus aureus colonization, specifically with methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA), and subsequent systemic infection. We present the cases of 2 patients without a history of MRSA inf...

Raltegravir, an inhibitor of the HIV-1 integrase enzyme, is the first available agent in a new class of antiretroviral drugs. Raltegravir has been studied extensively in clinical trials, and has been well tolerated and highly effective in both treatment-naïve and -experienced patients. Resistance to raltegravir is unusual given its recent availability, but resistance with identified viral mutat...

Knowledge of drug interactions among antiretroviral agents and other drugs used by HIV-infected patients is essential to maintaining safety and efficacy of drug treatment. Often, the clinical impact of drug-drug interactions cannot be predicted on the basis of pharmacokinetic interactions alone, highlighting the need for studies and analyses that provide exposure-response data. Drug interaction...

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Sulphonamides are the first effective chemotherapeutic agents used for bacterial infection in humans. Sulfonamides have a wide range of pharmacological activities such as Oral hypoglycemic, antileprotic, anti epileptic, anti-hypertensive, anti-bacterial, anti-protozoal, anti-fungal, anti retroviral, anti cancer, antiinflammatory, and used as diuretic. This review consists of a discussion on the...

Background Community pharmacists are very accessible to most patients yet; they have been underutilized in the aspect of providing HIV care and services. The World Health Organisation recently recommended expanding community pharmacists' roles to address the increasing complexity of antiretroviral agents and co-infection drug regimen. This study therefore was designed to assess the readiness an...