In order to establish infection in a person, a virus must enter cells such as lymphocytes, white blood cells of the immune system which normally protect the body from infection (Berkow, Beers, & Fletcher, 1997). The genetic material of the virus is incorporated into the DNA of the cell it invades, making the cell reproduce more and more virus until eventually, the cell dies and releases the virus into the bloodstream to infect more cells. Protease inhibitors strengthen the body's immune system by preventing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from making copies of itself and by boosting the number of virus-fighting T cells in the blood. This paper will look at the role of protease inhibitors in HIV infection. HIV is the virus which causes AIDS - acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Deaths from AIDS in the U.S. have dropped sharply since 1995 when a potent set of drugs called protease inhibitors became available (Seppa, 1998). Protease inhibitors strengthen the body's immune system by keeping HIV, the AIDS virus, from replicating itself and increasing the number of virus-fighting T cells, cells of the immune system which kill the virus, in the blood. Protease inhibitors have proved especially effective when used in combination with other anti-HIV medications. Such drug combinations have helped slow the rate at which HIV-positive people develop AIDS and have reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths in the U.S. from 21,460 in the first half of 1996 to 12,040 in the first half of 1997 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. During that same time, the number of new AIDS cases also fell slightly.
A survey showed that New Yorkers who were diagnosed with AIDS after 1994 and surveyed through 1996 were nearly three times as likely to have taken a combination of drugs that included a protease inhibitor as AIDS patients who were diagnosed and died during that period. AIDS claimed 19 lives per ...