Search

The article discusses effectiveness of antiretroviral agents. Despite the growing number of antiretroviral agents available, therapeutic options for HIV-1 infected patients experiencing failure of antiretroviral therapy remain limited. Indeed, treatment failure is frequently associated with the emergence of drug-resistance. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), which were the first antiretroviral agents available, are still the most frequently used class of drugs. Resistance to NRTIs has been associated with NRTI-associated mutations, which can be detected in plasma by use of genotypic resistance tests that sequence the reverse transcriptase gene. In HIV-1 infected patients experiencing failure of antiretroviral therapy, didanosine retains short term antiviral activity.