The goal of combination therapy is to slow the ability of HIV to make copies of itself.
HIV meds from different classes work in combination to target HIV in different ways. Targeting HIV in different ways and at more than one step in its life cycle hinders the ability of the virus to make copies of itself.
Reducing the amount of HIV in the body reduces the threat to the immune system, which can have an effect on how the virus impacts your body.
There are currently 6 classes of anti-HIV medicines available. The nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) and protease inhibitor (PI) classes prevent the replication of HIV by working inside T cells after they have been infected with HIV. Integrase inhibitors (INIs) block the activity of the integrase enzyme to prevent HIV DNA from meshing with healthy cell DNA. Fusion inhibitors (FI) differ from these other classes of anti-HIV medicines because they work outside of T cells to prevent HIV from fusing with, entering and infecting the cells. CCR5 inhibitors (CIs) block HIV by binding to the CCR5 coreceptor before the virus does.
FUZEON® can boost your regimen
When you only have one fully active agent in your regimen, the addition of FUZEON can help you attack the virus in at least 2 ways.
- According to the DHHS, adding at least 2, and preferably 3, fully active agents to an optimized-background antiretroviral regimen can provide significant antiretroviral activity1
- Studies have documented the effectiveness of a well-designed, multi-agent regimen1
HIV Drug Resistance
It is important to find an HIV treatment regimen that you can commit to. Successfully adhering to your treatment regimen by taking the correct dose of each of your anti-HIV drugs every day is the most important thing you can do to help control HIV and minimize drug resistance.
If you miss doses or fail to take medications as prescribed, the level of anti-HIV drugs in your blood can become low enough that HIV quickly makes copies of itself. This sets the stage for HIV to develop resistance to anti-HIV medications. When this happens, viral load goes up and T-cell counts can go down, signaling treatment failure.
As with other anti-HIV medicines, it is possible to develop resistance to FUZEON.
View the Patient Product Information.