How Does FUZEON Work?
Enter Fuzeon, the first approved member of a class of drugs called fusion inhibitors. Unlike the other classes of HIV meds — which attack HIV after it’s invaded your immune system — Fuzeon tries to stop HIV before it gets inside your immune cells. It’s one of the newest weapons in our anti-HIV arsenal. If you can follow our explanation about how HIV enters a CD4 cell — the box below about co-receptors and glycoproteins and “zipping” — you’ll understand that a good way to attack HIV is by preventing HIV from entering CD4 cells. This is exactly what fusion inhibitors like Fuzeon do. In effect, they prevent HIV from “fusing,” or joining, with your CD4 cells, so HIV never has a chance to turn those CD4 cells into new HIV-producing factories (and damage your immune system in the process).
