Table 2.

Current antiretroviral therapies and their mechanism of action.

Class of anti-HIV drug	Mechanism of Action	Examples
Entry inhibitors	Inhibit HIV-1 entry into healthy CD4+ cells	Maraviroc
Fusion inhibitors	Prevent HIV from binding to T-cell surface	Enfuvirtide
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors	Block the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) and inhibit DNA synthesis	Lamivudine, Zidovudine, Stavudine, Didanosine, Zalcitabine and Abacavir
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors	Block the formation of new virions by preventing the conversion of viral RNA to DNA	Etravirine, Delaviridine, Efavirenz and Nevirapine
HIV integrase strand transfer inhibitors	Block the enzyme integrase and prevent the integration of the viral DNA into the host genome	Raltegravir
Protease inhibitors	Block the protease enzyme and prevent viral replication and viral assembly	Saquinavir, Ritonavir, Indinavir, Nelfinavir, Lopinavir, Amprenavir and Tipranavir