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Protease Treatment

Protease treatment is the use of pills known as protease inhibitors (PIs). PIs have been used, in combination with other drugs, as an anti-HIV treatment. There are a number of FDA approved PIs on the market.

  1. Protease

    • Protease is a digestive enzyme that is needed to digest protein in the body. HIV needs this enzyme in order to make new viruses.

    How it Works

    • Protease treatment uses protease inhibitor pills, along with nucleoside analogues, and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, to produce a drug "cocktail". By blocking (inhibiting) protease, HIV can make copies of itself but it cannot infect new cells without the needed protease enzyme.

    Protease Inhibitors

    • According to the website, Simple Facts Project, the FDA has approved eight PIs so far. The generic versions are amprenavir, fosamprenavir, indinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir, lopinavir/ritonavir, and nelfinavir.

    Benefits

    • The greatest benefit of protease inhibitors has been to people with HIV. As part of the "cocktail", illnesses due to opportunistic infections, and death from AIDS, dropped approximately 70 percent.

    Warning

    • HIV continues to make more and new viruses all the time. Older types of protease inhibitors may not be effective with the new viruses.

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