Table 1.

Antiretroviral medication class and mechanism of action

Class	Generic Name	Mechanism of Action
Nucleoside / Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)	Abacavir Didanosine Emtricitabine Lamivudine Stavudine Tenofovir Zidovudine	Incorporate into DNA of the virus (competing with natural nucleotides), stopping transcription from RNA to DNA. The resulting DNA is incomplete and cannot create a new virus.
Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)	Delavirdine Efavirenz Etravirine Nevirapine Rilpivarine	Bind directly onto reverse transcriptase, preventing the conversion of RNA to DNA.
Protease Inhibitors (PIs)	Amprenavir Atanazavir Darunavir Fosamprenavir Indinavir Nelfinavir Ritonavir Saquinavir Tipranavir	Bind to the viral protease, preventing the correct cleavage of viral proteins, thus prevent HIV from being successfully assembled and released from the infected cells.
Fusion Inhibitors	Enfuvirtide	Disrupt the HIV molecular machinery at the final stage of fusion with the target cell, preventing uninfected cells from becoming infected.
Entry Inhibitors	Raltegravir	Targets integrase, an HIV enzyme that integrates the viral genetic material into human chromosomes