Glossary

matched – in clinical trials matched refers to each group having similar age, gender, ethnicity, HIV duration, health etc in a study.

CD4 cells are white blood cells in your immune system. CD4 cells signal to CD8 cells to destroy a virus. CD4 cells are also used by HIV as factories to reproduce in.

uneven distribution – a term in statistics where most results fall to the left (positive skewness) or right (negative skewness) of the middle of the range.

revertant mutation – this term is used in two ways.

Firstly when referring to a genetic change that shows the virus is returning from a drug resistant mutation back to a wild-type genotype. This can sometimes take several stages. For example, T215E/D/E and S are revertant mutations that can indicate the drug resistant mutation T215Y is being replaced by wild-type (i.e. T215T).

It can also refer to the fitness of a virus. A revertant mutation can refer to an additional mutation that allows the virus to regain viral fitness (most drug mutations also make the vurs less fit). The second example is called a compensatory mutation as is compensates for the reduced fitness caused by the first mutation.

fixed dose combination (FDC) – several drugs combined in one tablet at a standard dose.