ritonavir – a protease inhibitor (PI) that is now used boost levels of some other HIV drugs, especially other PIs.
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
half-life (T1/2) – the time taken a drug to clear from the highest concentration to half this level. Drugs have different half-lives in different compartments (ie half-life in blood can be different from the half-life inside a cell). It take 5 x the half-live for a drug to be considered cleared.
HIV PCR DNA test – a test that looks for HIV DNA (called integrated HIV) in blood. This is similar to viral load test which usually test for HIV RNA.
HAV – hepatitis A, a virus that causes liver disease.
integrase inhibitor – a type of HIV drug that stops HIV genetic material from ‘integrating’ into the DNA in a cell.
This is a relatively new family of HIV drugs.
Raltegravir, elvitegravir and dolutegravir are all integrase inhibitors.