The 2015 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections included new and exciting advances in the realm of antiretroviral therapy. The Temprano trial demonstrated benefits from early antiretroviral therapy and isoniazid preventive therapy. Important data on investigational antiretroviral drugs were presented, including tenofovir alafenamide fumarate and BMS-955176, an HIV-1 maturation ...

The antiretroviral treatment goal in highly treatment-experienced patients is now suppression of viral replication to undetectable levels, a goal that can be achieved by strategic use of combinations that include newer antiretroviral drugs. Newer drugs in established classes that improve virologic response when added to optimized background therapy include the protease inhibitors darunavir and ...

New antiretroviral drugs that offer large genetic barriers to resistance, such as the recently approved inhibitors of HIV-1 protease, tipranavir and darunavir, present promising weapons to avert the failure of current therapies for HIV infection. Optimal treatment strategies with the new drugs, however, are yet to be established. A key limitation is the poor understanding of the process by whic...

Although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically changed the epidemiological impact of HIV infection, many problems with currently used antiretroviral therapy have underscored the urgent need for additional therapeutic approaches. Structured treatment interruption trials, which can be considered an immune-based therapy with an autologous virus, have failed to control viral...

Each of the antiretroviral drugs that are currently used to stop the progression of HIV infection causes its own specific side effects. Despite the expansion, multiplication, and simplification of treatment options over the past decade, side effects continue to affect people living with HIV. Yet, we see a clear disconnect between the way side effects are normalized, routinized, and framed in cl...

The relationship between a patient’s sex and that individual’s ability to tolerate antiretroviral drugs is increasingly being examined. Several lines of evidence suggest that women are more likely than men to experience adverse effects of antiretroviral drugs.1 Nevirapine, a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), is associated with rash and hepatitis more frequently in women tha...