What are integrase inhibitors?
Viral integration is when newly made genetic material of the virus (called viral DNA) enters the nucleus of a cell and inserts itself into the cell’s genetic material (DNA). Once this integration is complete, the cell is operating on the genetic instructions of the virus as opposed to the cell and the cell becomes a sort of HIV factory. Integrase inhibitors seek to block the integrase enzyme from allowing this integration process from happening. Blocking integrase could offer much to the treatment of HIV disease. Because it would work at a different part in the viral life cycle than existing drugs, an integrase inhibitor would likely work against virus resistant to the current drugs. Also, the integrase enzyme doesn’t occur naturally in the body, so blocking it might not cause some of the side effects common to the existing drugs. Resistance to integrase inhibitors is likely to develop. However, researchers hope that integrase inhibitor resistant virus would be less able to infect othe
